Fox Carnage
by MechaUltimaZero
Summary: Inspired by Dirty Reid's 'The Spider Fox'. At the age of nine, a dying Naruto bonds with the Carnage symbiote, and as a result, numerous changes are occurring: Sasuke's a vigilante, Hinata and Sakura are mutants, and Lee's a mechanical wiz. NaruxYaku
1. Symbiosis

Saturday, October 10th

A trio of teenaged idiots were trying to brutally kill a nine year-old boy.

One of them kicked the child into what looked like a pool of red-and-black filth.

The boy, Naruto, blacked out.

* * *

He heard a voice, seeing into his mind, his heart, every fiber of his very being…

* * *

The pool disappeared, spreading over the child's body, covering him in a patternless red-and-black suit.

Once he was fully covered, Naruto's eyes looked like large white flames, and he now had long, pointed teeth.

Getting up, Naruto asked, in a high-pitched voice, **"What color do you bleed?!"** as the 'suit' formed into razor-sharp talons that he used to shred the fools' bodies.

In this manner he killed two of them, and for the third…

He gripped the terrified young man tendrils and drew him into the 'suit', eating away at him, draining away all of his life force before hurling him back into the open alley.

The boy-monster seemed to dissolve into a liquid, moving away, and Naruto was found asleep in his bed the next morning…

* * *

Monday, October 12

th

"Iruka-sensei, where's Naruto-san?"

"I'm not sure, but I'll have to count him as late if he doesn't show up soon."

Right then, Naruto burst through the door, seemingly out of breath, but with a huge grin on his face.

Capitalizing on everyone's shock, he said, "Speak of the devil; he's sure to appear."

Previously, Naruto had been rather shy and withdrawn (odd, considering that his closest friends were Kiba, Choji, and Ino), but now he was practically roaring like a dragon!

Another drastic change turned out to be his apparel: instead of his grey/white pants/longsleeved shirt, he wore black shorts, with a red-and-black shirt.

Going to his seat with a complete look of utter confidence, Naruto briefly prepared for that day's oral exam—and practically destroyed the questions.

All things considered, he seemed a completely different person.

At the end of the day, just as everyone was leaving, Ino asked, "Naru-kun, how'd you change? I mean, I think it's for the better, but still…"

Kiba added, "Yeah, Akamaru says you smell different, too!"

The small puppy barked in agreement.

Naruto slung his bag over his shoulder, shrugged, and said, "Don't know what to tell ya. Must be somethin' in my blood, I guess."

* * *

Once Naruto was asleep in bed, the red ooze from before covered his body like a blood-red suit. Then, 'it' climbed out of bed, before seemingly melting and dripping away.

It moved, seeping through cracks in the walls, until it reformed on the roof, and turned back into the 'suited' Naruto.

Now in the open air, it began leaping among the rooftops, seemingly searching for something…

A pair of ANBU noticed him, and realized that his speed and agility were, in fact, at least at _their_ level.

"What shall we do, Captain?"

"We'll follow him for now, see what he's up to. But that's all."

The ANBU breifly tailed 'Naruto', although they didn't know just who—or what—he actually was.

Suddenly, the ANBU lost him! Just as they were about to contact more units, he actually ambushed them from below, his right arm extending into a clawed grapple before pulling the subordinate into a pose perfect for snapping her neck.

"**Why do you chase me?"** he asked. There seemed to be two voices, although it also sounded like a single, high-pitched wail.

The captain, named Daisuke Serizawa, truthfully and calmly said, "We saw you leaping across the rooftops, and—"

"**We get it, just don't bother me again!"**

With that, the 'creature' let go of the lieutenant, leapt off the roof, and disappeared.

"Kiriko, are you all right?"

"I feel kind of… drained, but I'll be fine, Sir."

* * *

**Finally posted. Here are some of the coming character changes:**

**Sasuke = Punisher**

**Lee = Hulk OR Green Goblin (still a good guy, though)**

**Tenten = Hawkeye**

**Yakumo = Dr. Strange OR Mysterio (I'm not sure yet)**

**OC on Naruto's team = Electro!**


	2. Carnage

Carnage

The next morning, Naruto awoke in a sewer covered with red-and-black webs.

A mirror image of him appeared, before being covered in the 'suit'.

It said, "You'll have a number of questions, so go ahead and start asking."

The boy stammered out, "Where am I? Who—no, WHAT are you?!"

"This is your mind. And I am an alien symbiote—a creature that survives by bonding with a host; namely: you."

Stepping back, Naruto accused, "What, you're going to eat me from the inside?!"

"No, but others of my race do that. I, through you, absorb energy from other people in order to survive. But… it's a two-way street."

Caught off guard, Naruto asked, "How so?"

The creature seemed to grin as it told him, "You'll find that out when you wake up."

Having about half an hour of free time, the symbiote's voice told Naruto, "Because of our bond, you're several times stronger, faster, and tougher than any ordinary human being. My first host, Cletus Kasady, was able to life about fifty tons straight off the ground."

'How much is fifty tons?'

"Imagine a solid rock the size of your apartment—that's roughly five tons."

Jumping around the Forest of Death, Naruto began learning to use his strength. Punching a rather thick tree with all of his might when the suit covered him, the monolithic plant toppled over, split clean in two at the base.

That night, Naruto gave up sleep and let the symbiote costume engulf him once more.

"I suppose I need a name we can use… why go against the classics? **My name is Carnage now."**

Carnage (as Naruto will be called when wearing the suit) started learning more about his powers. Strength, speed, agility, the power to stick to walls, having the symbiote make disguises—all this and more he began to learn.

He also found that he could use the symbiote to form tendrils with which to attack from a distance, whether by hardening them like spears, flailing them like whips, or creating blades on the ends like a scythe on a chain.

"We also have cosmic powers, from when I temporarily bonded with Norrin Radd, better known as the Silver Surfer. However, we can't use them too frequently, as they're very exhausting. We even have two other senses: Spider-Sense, which is warns us of danger, and a Symbiote-sense with which we can detect other symbiotes in the vicinity. Combined, these two additional senses can be used much like a radar."

Entering the Village proper, Carnage wondered, **"I'm hungry, but it's not like any hunger I've ever felt before. What is it?"**

"Symbiotes normally feed off of the host I'm bonded with, but my… progenitor and I do not. Neither does my descendant. But since we don't feed on our hosts, we have to feed on OTHER people using our hosts as a medium."

"**So I have to eat people?!"**

"No; by coming into contact with the symbiote, their life energy—including what you call chakra—is absorbed via a type of osmosis. Absorbing their energy is how we survive. Because of our bond, if either of us dies, then so will the other."

Not happy about it, but bereft of any alternatives, Carnage resumed leaping across the rooftops. **"If I have to… feed on other people, then I'll only attack the ones that deserve it: only criminals, no innocents."**

Unbeknownst to Naruto, he had basically adopted a philosophy similar to what Carnage's 'Father', Venom had.

At any rate, feeding on criminals shouldn't be too difficult; the entire police force had been killed off about a year ago, and the civilian sections of the city were caught up in a gang war.

Every few seconds, Carnage let out a combined pulse of Spider-sense and Symbiote-sense, looking not only for—he couldn't bring himself to think 'food'—prey, but also for any potential threats.

After a few moments, he observed a robbery in progress: three men holding up a convenience store. Choosing to end it quickly, Carnage tapped one of them and sent him flying about thirty feet away, having absorbed minimal energy from the brief contact.

Turning his arm into a massive spear, Carnage impaled the next one, and then caused it to branch out like tree roots, before spikes finally came out of nearly every part of his opponent's body.

This time, he'd taken almost all of the life energy. Facing the final burglar, Carnage formed six spikes from the symbiote and hurled them at him, instantly killing him and draining most of his energy.

Making sure to take the rest of the energy from the three thieves, Carnage leapt into the shadows, dissolved, and then fled into the sewers.

All of this had occurred in just a matter of seconds.

And there was virtually no evidence as to what, exactly, had done this. Of course, had they known about Carnage, he'd be the only suspect, but they didn't yet, so the cause of the deaths—as far as the authorities were concerned—was a complete enigma.

And there hadn't been any witnesses, either.

Carnage faced a rather singular conflict: although he was a bit horrified that he'd killed those people—and even more so because he'd actually enjoyed doing it—he was also savagely thrilled t being able to get away with it.

By dawn, Carnage had 'reverted' to Naruto, and actually looked rather well-rested.

Settling in for another day of the usual, Naruto morphed the 'suit' into black cargo pants, a bloodred t-shirt, and dark red sneakers. Deciding that something was missing, he added a black tribal pattern on the shirt, and also formed a black long-sleeved jacket that went halfway down to his knees, but left it unzipped. It felt a lot like fleece.

Grabbing his books and pack, noting to store them in the symbiote later (supposedly, it was like having infinite-sized pockets), he calmly walked towards the Academy.

**

* * *

**

**Author's Notes: for symbiote powers and Spider-Sense, I'm using a combination of concepts from **_**Spider-Man: Web of Shadows **_**(PS3), **_**Spider-Man: Friend or Foe**_** (PS2), the comic books, and the Marvel Database project (a Wiki for ALL Marvel Comics). The original written chapter for this was a lot shorter, probably a page less. Now where's that question some of you are just dying to ask: "If Carnage has to feed on people, then why not take energy from the Kyuubi?"**

**Well, for starters, Demon energy would be way more powerful than human energy, so if Carnage WERE to feed off the Kyuubi, then obviously he wouldn't have to feed on humans anymore. BUT the only energy he'd be able to take is chakra, which is a significant part of life energy, as I define it in this story, but NOT all of it. If you've read any of the Twilight books, it would be a similar concept to Carlisle or any of the other Cullens drinking animal blood in order to keep themselves strong enough to resist the allure of human blood. Furthermore, Naruto doesn't know about the Kyuubi yet, and the symbiote hasn't really seen fit to tell him; even if it had, the idea of absorbing Demon chakra hasn't occurred to either of them yet.**


	3. Use Your Illusion I

Use Your Illusion, Part One

Now on summer break, all Naruto could do to fill his time was either jumping around to search for criminals, or else go 'joyriding' through the Forest of Death.

It was a few hours before dawn, and Carnage suddenly heard the sound of a little girl crying.

Grateful for the distraction, Carnage lashed out with a tendril, catapulting himself towards the source.

Finding a girl in an alley, Carnage asked, **"What's wrong—how can I help you?"**

She was wearing a light blue shirt/blouse that covered the entirety of her upper body, as well as a dark red skirt that covered all of her legs. She looked to be a year or two older than Naruto was.

She looked up at him, her eyes all red and puffy from crying, and said, "You could kill me, for one."

Flame-like eyes widening, Carnage asked, **"Excuse me? Why do you want to die?"**

Suddenly, his Spider-sense went berserk as he instinctively jumped straight up… and barely evaded a massive stone claw fracturing the ground where he had just stood.

Landing on the wall directly above the girl, he looked at his sudden assailant.

It was about seven feet tall—and since it was hunched over, it was probably at least a third larger standing erect—and appeared to be all muscle. Colored grey, it had giant wings protruding from its back, a pair of wicked horns coming out the top of its head, and vicious claws. Made of stone, Carnage realized he was facing a Gargoyle.

It leaped up at him, snarling and growling as the monster thrashed its tail, furious that its attack had failed.

Once again evading the beast, Carnage threw a mighty punch at it, hitting its chest dead center-and watched as the rock crumbled around his fist. However, it was only a small crater near where the stomach would be; and with one massive claw swipe sent Carnage flying across the alley.

Quickly growing infuriated with his foe, Carnage lunged at the Grey Gargoyle as he morphed an arm into a massive drill with which he began tunneling into the monster's granite hide. He also began to expand the drill as he burrowed, until the creature violently fragmented into tiny little pieces.

Turning back to the girl, he asked, **"Now what was all that about?"**

The girl seemed to be in a trance for a few moments, as she was talking to herself.

Then, she said, "My name is Yakumo Kurama. My family has a supernatural affinity with Genjutsu, and I can make the results of my illusions real. However, my gift created an alternate personality—or rather, it turned my Id (the part of my mind that only understands taking what it wants, consequences be damned) into another personality. You probably think I'm joking with you or something, but I honestly swear, I'm not! My Id wants to take over my body and destroy the Village. Please, you have to help me!"

Yakumo's tone of voice had changed throughout the course of her speech from formality, to borderline desperation, to a great fear of what she was describing.

"… **I'm not sure I understand all of that, but I do get that you need my help to save the village from your evil twin—from a strictly psychological standpoint, that is."**

Relieved that he believed her, Yakumo said, "Thank you for believing me. In a couple of minutes or so, I'm going to wake up, and this Genjutsu will end. Yes, this basically happened in a dream, but it still happened in reality, too. See that hole in the ground from where the Grey Gargoyle tried to get you? It'll still be there when we get back to normal reality. I live in the manor located at 1408 Moll Street. From here, it's about three blocks away to the East—if you get to Lora Street, then you've gone too far. When you get to the door, the guards will ask you what the password is—oddly enough, it's 'Gargoyle'. After they let you in, ask to see me—tell them that it's urgent, and they won't trouble you. I can explain more then."

As the crumbs that formerly made up the Grey Gargoyle began to dissipate, Yakumo asked, "I can't believe I forgot—what's your name?!"

Everything was beginning to fade—they both were waking up. Carnage retracted the suit from his body, and just before she could no longer see or hear him, he said, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. See you in a little while."

**

* * *

**

**A/N: Well, now I've introduced Yakumo to the story, and pretty soon I'll bring in two more of the central charcters: Electro (whose name within the story I'll keep to myself for now), and Naruto's sensei. Oh, and anyone who's managed to catch every single reference to Godzilla or another film series will be mentioned in the next update. I don't just mean this chapter—I mean the entire story so far. I've also decided to let you choose who Yakumo will become later on:**

**A) Mysterio**

**B) Doctor Strange**

**In either case, she'll still be a 'good guy', and… that's about it. Oh, and this is just part one of a two-parter. After I finish Part Two, I'll go back and merge them into one chapter. Regardin Yakumo, please vote in reviews whether you think she should be Doctor Strange or Mysterio! (Not a while lot of differences, but you know what I mean!)**


	4. Use Your Illusion II

**This is the longest chapter of anything I've ever written, by far.**

* * *

Use Your Illusion II: Vs. the Id!

As the outlines of his vision returned to their normal, un-blurry state, Naruto got up off the ground in the alley where he'd fallen to the genjutsu.

Shaking the proverbial cobwebs out of his head, Naruto regained his bearings and headed off to 1408 Moll Street.

Changing his attire until it was more… upper-class, so to speak, Naruto began using his considerable speed while still on the ground, running until he arrived only a couple of minutes later.

The two Kurama Clan guards asked, "Who are you, and what is your business?"

Pleasantly smiling, Naruto said, "A girl named Yakumo was asking for my help, and told that the password was Gargoyle. May I come in?"

Uncaring because he'd given the correct password, the guards simply let him through.

One of the guards came to escort him to Yakumo's chamber, as they called it.

Looking around, it was a very nice place: a two-story, white manor that looked like it held at least twenty rooms or so. It was almost built in a style reminiscent of a Medieval-era Western castle.

Walking through a Zen garden, he entered the building and, now alone, jumped the staircase in a single bound, without making a single noise.

Letting out a combined pulse of Spider-sense and Symbiote-sense, he detected Yakumo and continued until he was right outside her door.

Knocking, he asked, "It's me, Naruto. Can I come in?"

He heard her say, "Go on ahead."

Opening the door and entering her room, Naruto said, "So I think you were going to explain more of your problem to me?"

"Yes, well, I already told you that my Id is trying to take over my body and mind so it can destroy the village. You also know that if anything happens in my genjutsu, it happens here in the real world, too. The monster you fought last night was one of my Id's lieutenants, and it was fairly strong, too. But you defeated the Grey Gargoyle with almost no trouble at all. You also weakened my Id—not by much, but a little. If you could manage to keep fighting off and killing my Id's monsters, you should be able to take away most of its power. Will you help me?"

Naruto asked, "How exactly would I do that?"

Her face the picture of shame, Yakumo replied, "I'd have to bring you into my mind, and once there, you'd have to kill as many of my Id's monsters as you can, therefore weakening it. You're the only one who can help me—the only person who can stop my Id without taking away my dream of being a ninja. Kurenai-sensei wants me to give up being a ninja, and the Hokage—he wants to seal up my genjutsu!"

By this point, she had gotten worked into hysterics, and was sobbing into Naruto's shoulder. Awkwardly patting her back, Naruto said, "Hey, I killed that Gargoyle-teme, didn't I? I'm going to be Hokage someday, and I've got to help everybody who needs it. You asked for my help, and by Odin, I'll stop your Id no matter what!"

Still crying somewhat, Yakumo looked at him and asked, "But you could die—you can't be any older than I am. Why do you want to risk your life for me? You helped me—I don't want you to die…"

Naruto grinned and said, "Hey, I won't die. Not ever before I can achieve my dream of becoming Hokage. And while I'm at it, I'll do everything I can to help make your dream come true, too."

Feeling a sensation of hope welling up inside, Yakumo wiped away her tears and said, "Okay, let's do this."

Bringing her hands to the sides of Naruto's face, she began an incantation:

"**Your mind to my mind, your thoughts to my thoughts. Our minds are one."**

Suddenly, they both collapsed.

* * *

Looking at the scene around him, Naruto said, "No offense, Yakumo-chan, but the inside of your head is kind of creepy."

He stood in what seemed to be the mixture of a graveyard and a battle arena of some sort.

A man robed all in white with a red mask appeared and asked him, "State thy name, thou wretched cur, so that I may know whom I have slain."

Stepping back, Naruto asked, "Wait, why do you want to kill me?"

Advancing, the white-robed man replied, "Thou shalt not deceive me, thou servant of Idou!"

Realizing what this was about, Naruto asked, "You think I serve the Id? You're wrong—I'm here to help FIGHT the Id! What's your name? Mine's Naruto Uzumaki."

The white-robed man halted in his advance, and stated, "Thou sayest that thy allegiance lay with the Lady Yakumo, and that thou wouldst aid me in combat against the vile Idou? Thy words are those of a silver-tongued devil, and yet have the ring of truth. Very well, Sir Naruto, I shall accept thy aid in battle. As for my title, it is Sir Ian, White Knight of the Heart."

Sir Ian bowed, showing an amount of respect for Naruto, who returned the gesture.

"So tell me, Sir Ian, how do we defeat the Id?"

"Idou is immortal and cannot be destroyed—to do so would cause great harm to the Lady Yakumo, as they are bound inexplicably. Idou can, however, be brought under control. But to do this, we must first put a stop to his foul minions."

With a steadily growing sense of unease, Naruto caused the symbiote to begin covering his body as he asked, "I'm not sure what I should be asking—how many minions does he have, **or how we're supposed to kill them."**

Before Ian could remark about Naruto suddenly changing his appearance, he said, **"Don't worry about it. This… suit I'm wearing makes me stronger and faster, that's all. And I can also make weapons from it… basically, you have your sword, and I have my suit. Let's leave it at that, shall we?"**

Nodding, Ian jerked as if he'd had a cold chill, and at the same time, Carnage's Spider-sense detected major threats.

As one, they looked to see an army of a thousand monsters—vampires, demons, zombies, werewolves, copies of Frankenstein's monster, and undefined forms, seemingly led by creatures from the gates of Hell.

Ian drew his sword, revealing a wickedly curved black scimitar, with white lightning patterns engraved upon each side of the blade. "Sir Naruto, or whatever thou wishest to call thyself in thy new form, I propose a contest of sorts. Whosoever may smite down the greatest number of Idou's knaves shall be triumphant. The victor may claim the honor of being known as the greatest of Lady Yakumo's guardians."

"**In other words, whichever one of us kills more of those freaks gets bragging rights? You're on—and for future reference, Carnage is my name. And my game's a little something I like to call…"**

Leaping forward and lengthening his right arm into a chain-sword, he finished, **"SLAUGHTER SPREE!!!!"**

The monsters were numerous, but weak; whereas Ian and Carnage numbered only two, but had the strength of two million.

Ripping through the various things, Carnage clawed, punched, and ruthlessly swiped at anything within his considerable reach. They weren't very full of life-energy, as he quickly discovered, but he realized that he was stealing energy from the Id itself—but at the same time, from Yakumo as well.

Unable to kill them in any other manner, however, Carnage tried to accelerate the massacre.

Not far away, Ian was also faring well against his opponents.

Bringing his sword to bear, he channeled yellow energy into it and vertically struck the ground, releasing a shockwave that cleaved a dozen or so of the monsters in pieces. (**Think 'Blade Beam'**)

"Die, thou foul cretins! By Odin, I shall send thee to Niflheim!"

Slashing through another swath of monsters, he began to chant:

"_**Soul wrought of terra corrupt, quelling impurity, purging the stream to beckon forth an ultimate fate. Behold mighty Chaos, Omega's squire to the lofty heavens!"**_

Flames began to swirl around Ian, incinerating the various demons and nightmares and hell-spawns before him. Then, he dispersed it in a massive wave of pure emotion, creating a wake of devastation beyond the power of words to describe.

Between Ian's grand massacre and Carnage's slaughter spree, it was a miracle that they'd managed to keep track.

Parrying an attack from a blade-beast, Ian shouted, "I have slain three hundred, eighty-four! How farest thou!?"

Clawing a werewolf to death, Carnage replied, **"Counting that one, four hundred and six!"**

Smiling behind his mask, Ian declared, "It seems that thou hast greater might than I had thought. Thus, I shall no longer stay my hand—behold the White Knight's power!"

He then surrounded himself with white crescents that evoked thought of the moon, before hurling them around him, tearing the assorted cannon fodder apart.

Carnage, not willing to be outdone, surrounded himself with enemies as he ejected spines from all over his body, skewering over twenty of them.

Grinning maniacally, Carnage cried out, **"Five-oh-four, bitch!"**

Ian merely sighed as he said, "Had I used my full power from the very beginning of our duel, thy victory wouldst never have come. But even so, yet another battle has been won for the Lady Yakumo!"

Suddenly, absolute darkness enveloped the pair as a voice from beyond the Great Ethereal accosted them. It spoke with two voices: one in the ancient dialect Ian used, and another imitating Carnage's manner of speech.

"_**Foolish mortals; thou hast brought thy own doom upon thee. Sayeth thy prayers now, whilst thou still hath a chance.**_** Pitiful humans—I will enjoy the symphony of your screams as I rend you limb from limb! Beg for mercy, and I'll give you a quick death!**_**"**_

Ian summoned a white, luminescent staff and twirled it around, casting light into the area once more.

He and Carnage stepped back involuntarily; for Idou/the Id was truly a monster.

It was hunched over, like a gorilla, but resembled more of a hell-dog. Vicious horns curved over its skull like a ram, and bulging muscles rippled under its skin. Ivory slits flickered back and forth between Carnage and Ian, seemingly trying to decide which to disembowel first. (**In this instance, the Id/Idou looks sort of like the boss Ifrit from FFX-2**)

Carnage asked, **"Hey, you—if you're the Id, or Idou, or whatever the hell you're called, then you're going to leave Yakumo-chan alone, or else. That's your first, last, and only warning, you hear me?"**

"**Bah! You, warning **_**me**_**?! Child, I shall laugh as I watch Yakumo beg me not to kill you! **_**Thou foolish child, thy words are mere boasting—thy power is meaningless before my own. Thou, however, White Knight—if thou wouldst join me, I shall endeavor to spare thee from grim demise. What sayest thou?**__**"**_

Gripping his staff in one hand and his blade in the other, Ian declared, "I say to thee: take thy lies to a simple-minded knave who wouldst believe thee, wretched cur!"

Giving his battle cry, Ian and Carnage leaped at the Id, Ian with his sword and staff; Carnage with bladed tendril-whips sprouting from his arms.

Leaping out of the way to avoid them, Idou spat forth a burst of flame, attempting to incinerate Ian—the only one he considered a threat, since Carnage/Naruto was not of Yakumo's mind. In short, Idou had just underestimated not just Naruto Uzumaki, but Carnage—and almost no one had EVER underestimated Carnage and lived.

Using a moon-like shield, Ian blocked the stream of fire before retaliating with a lightning-slash from his scimitar. Trying to evade it, Idou lost track of Carnage, who struck from above, screaming, **"In the immortal words of the Thing—IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME!!!"**

He landed on the back of the neck, and anchored by the symbiote, grabbed Idou's head by the snout and yanked back—an action that would have easily snapped any other creature's neck.

"**All right, you nightmarish bag of scum, listen and listen well: you're going to let Yakumo be in peace from now on, or else we're going to kick your subconscious ass again and again until you back off! As we sit here, I'm eating away at you, making you weaker just by touching you. All I have to do is sit here until you give up and cooperate, or else until you're too weak to argue. What's it going to be?"**

Snarling at his humiliation, Idou's pride of his strength overcame his embarrassment as he said, _**"**__**Very well—I acknowledge thy might, Sir Ian, White Knight of the Heart, and Naruto Uzumaki of the Hidden Leaf, also known as Carnage. I hereby swear fealty unto the Lady Yakumo, so that she gayest call upon my aid if it ever be necessary.**_** You two are stronger than I am—I give up! If Yakumo-same ever needs my help, she can just ask for it, okay? Now let me go!**_**"**_

Ian declared, "Then by my will, Idou, thou art now given into the service of the Lady Yakumo. Sir Carnage, or Sir Naruto, or whatever name thou wishest to use, thou hast my gratitude, and the Lady Yakumo's favor. 'Till next our paths cross, fare thee well, friend."

From Carnage's point of view, everything seemed to blur, and he realized that Yakumo was bringing him back to Earth. Absentmindedly, he contemplated how very true that was.

* * *

Awakening 'out' of the suit, so to speak, Naruto opened his eyes to find that he was in the Hokage's office. There were a number of ANBU in the room; he also noted that Yakumo seemed to be arguing with the Hokage and a semi-attractive woman with black hair and crimson eyes.

"Yakumo, your Id must be sealed to protect the Village—"

Yakumo interrupted, "No, it doesn't—not anymore, at least, because Naruto-kun helped me stop it! Why won't you listen to me?!"

One of the ANBU, specifically one wearing a tuna mask, said, "The Uzumaki brat? Get real. He may be a good kid and all that, but Naruto couldn't fight his way out of a cardboard box, let alone go toe-to-toe with your dark side."

With a hand signal, the various ANBU began advancing on Yakumo, only to be intercepted by what seemed to be a thin wall of blood. At its center was Naruto, standing between Yakumo and the Hokage in a defensive posture. The 'blood' swirled through the air a bit, before condensing on his body and disappearing.

His voice hard, Naruto said, "Old man, I really did help put a stop to her Id. But Yakumo-chan dreams of being a ninja—and my dream is to become Hokage; and part of that job is helping other people achieve their own dreams, or at least that's how I see it. I'm only going to say this once: if you, or anyone else try to seal up Yakumo's genjutsu, you'll crush her dream. And if you do that…"

Here, the symbiote spread over his body, covering his legs, most of his torso, his right arm, and only the right half of his face.

"If you do that, then I promise you this: things are gonna get real bloody, **real fast, you hear?**"

Not hearing a response, Naruto/Carnage demanded, **"DO YOU HEAR ME?!"**

Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded and said, "Naruto, I trust you, so I suppose that Yakumo may retain her genjutsu. But if her Id should ever become a threat again, I will not hesitate to intervene."

As the symbiote began to disappear, Naruto smirked and said, "And I'll beat you to it, old man."

Waving off the casual remark, the Hokage said, "Okay then, everyone here is dismissed. Naruto, Yakumo, I want you two to give me complete report on EXACTLY what happened tomorrow morning. Until then, you are free to go. Is that fair enough?"

Yakumo bowed and said, "Yes, Hokage-sama" while Naruto just shrugged and replied, "Sure thing, gramps!"

As the two children left the building, Yakumo said, "Naruto-kun, I can't thank you enough for helping me. If there's anything I can ever do for you…"

Naruto just waved it off and said, "Ah, don't worry about it. If you need my help again, just call—and if I need your help with something, I'll call you, got it?"

Smiling, Yakumo agreed, and just before she left for home, she gave Naruto a small kiss on the cheek.

Stunned, Naruto brought his hand up to touch the spot where she'd kissed him, before turning into Carnage and leaping onto the rooftops, screaming something about Cloud 9.

* * *

**This chapter is dedicated to Iron Reprieve, SchizophrenicInsomniac (I pray I spelled that right), and Dirty Reid, who is currently on a trip to Mexico.**

**The poll regarding Yakumo is still active, and I'm adding more:**

**Tenten: Bullseye, Hawkeye, Elektra, or a combination of the three (Youko-Taichou was rather... adamant that Elektra made the most sense, but what do I know--I'm a guy...)**

**Choji: Luke Cage or Mr. Fantastic**

**And I repeat, the choices of the Yakumo poll are as follows: Mysterio, or Doctor Strange.**

**The Yakumo poll will close when I post the next chapter. All other polls will be open for voting until St. Patrick's Day, unless I say otherwise in the meanwhile.**

**Read, Review, and stay tuned for the next chapter of 'Fox-Carnage'!**


	5. Enter: Punisher and the Goblin

Change

Act One: Night of the Punisher

(Three years ago…)

Walking home from the Academy, Sasuke unexpectedly came across the scent of blood.

His heart began to pound as he ran, looking for the source of the overwhelming stench.

Suddenly, he found his uncle bleeding on the ground, dead. Looking down the street of the Uchiha District, he found more and more dead bodies—his entire family had been killed.

Running to his house, he opened the door and was horrified to find the broken bodies of his mother a father. Looking up, Sasuke saw two crimson orbs that came closer to him.

He recognized the red spheres as the Sharingan, and they belonged to his brother.

"Itachi, what's going on? Who killed Mother and Father? Who killed everyone else?!"

With a fully dead voice, Itachi said, "I did, Sasuke. I killed them to test my new power; the power I gained by killing my best friend: the Mangekyo Sharingan." The three tomoe in Itachi's eyes merged together into a windmill as he said "Let me show you my **Tsukuyomi**."

Sasuke found himself in a red-and-black world of some kind, tied to a cross. Colors—everything seemed inverted. Itachi said, "I will show you how easily I killed them, Sasuke. You will be forced to watch me kill our family repeatedly for three days."

No matter which way Sasuke turned, or what he did; whether his eyes were open or closed, he could not avoid seeing his brother—the person he looked up to more than anyone else in the world—slaying his clan over and over again. He saw it happen ten times before he heard Itachi say, "One second has passed. Seventy-one hours, fifty-nine minutes, and fifty-nine seconds to go."

"NO!!"

The next morning, Sasuke was found lying comatose on the street, surrounded by dead bodies.

It took five days for the medical ninja to heal him. The day after that, he was brought before the Council.

One of them said, "Sasuke Uchiha-kun, we wish to help you in any way possible so that you may avenge your Clan." She was about to continue before she was interrupted.

Sasuke's voice was as dead as his brother's had been when he said, "Not vengeance. Revenge is an emotional response. No, not vengeance. Punishment."

Turning his back on the Council, Sasuke finished, "If you can't understand the difference, then you're wasting my time."

The next morning, Sasuke was reading the newspaper when a side column caught his notice. He read, "Serial rapist Shinji Matsumura acquitted of charges due to insufficient evidence."

His cousin had been reading up on that case—after all, an Uchiha had been raped as well.

Shinji Matsumura was going unpunished, just like Itachi was.

"Not for long, you aren't."

Shinji Matsumura was 5'11", blonde, and slightly muscular—he looked like the Chunin he was. His brown eyes were slightly unfocused due to intoxication from alcohol, but he still noticed that he was being followed.

Suddenly, something hit him hard in the gut, before clamping his mouth shut and knocking him out for a moment. When he came to a few seconds later, he was in an alley by the night club he'd just exited. Someone stood in front of him, wearing a black jacket and a shirt with a white skull on it.

"Shinji Matsumura." It was neither an accusation nor a question, simply a statement of fact.

"You raped seven women, two of them fifteen, before killing the first six."

With a smug look on his face, Shinji nastily replied, "I was acquitted, so what?"

Sasuke Uchiha flicked open a lighter, revealing his face as he said, "Not by me, you weren't," before tossing the lighter onto the kerosene-soaked Shinji, setting him ablaze.

As the burning man's screams summoned people from the night club, as well as the general area, Sasuke disappeared without a trace, leaving only a note.

'_In certain extreme situations, the law is inadequate. In order to shame its inadequacy it is necessary to act outside the law-to pursue…natural justice. This is not vengeance. Revenge is not a valid motive, it's an emotional response. No, not vengeance. Punishment.'_

When the ANBU Black Ops showed up, they couldn't find any clues to the murderer's identity, but one of them wearing a Hawk mask said, "I don't care who did it—that bastard raped and killed my sister; he got his just desserts."

By now, Sasuke was in his room, panting. He'd barely made it out before the ANBU would've been able to detect him. "I'm not strong enough to punish Itachi; that will have to wait. But this Village—the civilian sections were kept in control by the Police force, which was run entirely by the Uchiha Clan, which no longer exists."

Thinking to himself, he said out loud, "The rats will be coming out of the wall in droves…. Killers, rapists, thieves, drug dealers—you will get to know me very well. You will know me as… the Punisher."

Change

Act Two: Goblin at Morning…

(Two years after the Uchiha Massacre…)

Rock Lee, age 11, Genin, was currently in the Library, looking for anything that could give him a new idea to help him out in his next sparring match with his teammate and rival, Neji.

Coming across old records, Lee was suddenly inspired. Checking out the book, he also got a number of other books on subjects such as metalworking, electronic engineering, and sealing.

Going through some junkyards to get whatever scrap metal he could find, Lee then bought some paint and a brush.

Tenten, Guy, and even Neji were fairly worried when Lee didn't show up for the next day's meeting. He also didn't appear for the next five days.

Volunteering to go check on her teammate, Tenten went to Lee's house, as she was the only one who'd been there before.

Knocking on the door, she heard an exclamation of "Ow, my head!" with a metallic sounding _thunk_.

Just as she was about to knock again, Lee opened the door and asked, "Oh, Tenten, what is going on this fine youthful day? Did you need something?"

Tenten stepped back and appraised him briefly. He was virtually drowning in soot, grease, and black paint and he also looked a little burnt.

"Lee, where on _Earth_ have you been?! We've all been worried about you for the past week! And… is that a _blowtorch_ you're holding?!?!?!?"

Lee looked down at his hand, and then said, "No… that is a welding iron, not a blowtorch. And what do you mean you've been worried about me for the last week? I've only been here a day or two."

Holding up her hand, Tenten said, "You missed FIVE meetings in row, Lee. Not one, not two, but FIVE. Even NEJI's getting paranoid. What have you been doing?!"

Honestly shocked, Lee said, "I did not know I had missed five meetings in a row! You see, I have been working on a youthful project that, once completed, WILL TRANSCEND MY YOUTHFULNESS TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL!!! Could you please tell Guy-sensei and my youthful rival Neji that I am at a very delicate part of the project, and that I would like to finish it as quickly as possible? I will be there in less than an hour, and apologize for my completely unyouthful tardiness once I arrive. Would you please do this youthful favor for me?"

Not entirely sure what was going on, Tenten chose to humor him and give the others Lee's message.

Once she relayed it, Guy said, "So my most youthful student is trying to improve his youthfulness with some sort of mechanical contraption, it would seem. I honestly look forward to seeing the results of his labor. Until Lee arrives, we will simply have to wait. Tenten, Neji, you will spar using only Taijutsu, and then using only ranged weapons. Begin!"

Resigned, Neji and Tenten did as they were instructed, Neji winning the Taijutsu matches and Tenten winning the weaponized battles.

Twenty minutes later, Lee arrived, still looking sort of burnt on his face, but now wearing dull green, semi-form-fitting armor in place of his bright green spandex. His gauntlets covered the back and palm of his hands, but left the fingers exposed.

Bowing, he said, "Neji, Tenten, Guy-sensei, I must apologize for my unyouthful absence and equally unyouthful tardiness. I know it is little more than an excuse, but I have been working on a project to enhance my youthfulness to a level I cannot have ever dreamed of!"

Guy gave his 'pose of youth' and said, "All right, Lee, I want to see this new project of yours in action. You will spar with Neji—all techniques, weapons, and abilities are permitted. If your youth has increased as much as your devotion to this project leads me to believe, you will not be punished. However, if I feel that you have squandered your time and energy on something with no or little practical application, and then I will challenge you to defeat me in a seven-hundred lap race around the Village, on our hands! Do you accept, Lee?"

"Yes, I will accept any challenge you set before me Guy-sensei, and I will not only meet your expectations, I will surpass them by completing nine hundred laps around the Village on my hands regardless of how I do in my spar with Neji!"

Turning to his rival, Lee then go into the Strong Fist stance, smiling as he asked, "Do you wish to make the first move, or shall I?"

Neji simply activated his Byakugan and rushed Lee, channeling his chakra for a Gentle Fist-style attack.

Suddenly, Lee caught his hand in mid-strike before tossing Neji into the air and kicking him in the chest… which then sent him flying into a tree.

Chasing after Neji, Lee aimed a punch that missed, but split the tree in half.

On the sidelines, Guy and Tenten gawked—Lee had NEVER been this strong or fast before with his weights still on.

Lee then bit his finger, drawing blood, and swiped it over a hidden seal on his left shoulder.

In a 'poof' of smoke, a black piece of metal about six feet long and one foot wide appeared next to Lee, who then set it on the ground before stepping on it.

His boots latching to the piece of metal, it began rising into the air with a soft hum.

Neji cried out, "Lee, how is this—that thing is flying, using your chakra as a power source… that shouldn't be possible!"

Lee crouched a little to improve his balance as he said, "Normally, it would be impossible, as my chakra pathways are irreparably damaged, preventing me from being able to control it. However, I found a book on seals in the Library, and one of the seals in it was used for chakra absorption—I am not putting my chakra into my glider, _it_ is TAKING my chakra FROM me. I also found out that my reserves are much larger than yours, is that not correct? Therefore, chakra exhaustion isn't really a problem."

Smirking now, Lee began to move forward on his glider, as he'd called it, steadily gaining momentum. Activating more seals on his gauntlets, it suddenly fired a large number of shuriken at Neji, who was only able to avoid bodily harm by using his **8 Trigrams Rotation** technique.

By the time he'd stopped spinning, Lee was on top of him, grabbing a sphere from a pouch hanging from his shoulder. With the Byakugan, Neji saw that it was covered almost entirely with different types of explosive seals—some he recognized, and some he didn't.

When Lee threw it, Neji had to jump out of the way as the detonation virtually decimated the tree behind him. Before he could react again, Lee had Neji pinned to the ground with his glider, saying, "I was inspired to create all of this in the Library, when I found records of an ancient scientist named Norman Osborn… who after inventing a glider and weapons like those I've just used, began calling himself the Green Goblin."

(**For a basic template, I'm using the New Goblin's costume and Glider from **_**Spider-Man 3**_**. His armor, however, is more like it is in the first **_**Spider-Man**_** film.**)

Guy said, "Lee, using that bomb on Neji was rather unyouthful, but I believe that, overall, your performance was at least three times as youthful as any of your battles prior!"

But, true to his word, Lee sealed up his Glider, then did a handstand and said, "Guy-sensei, you challenged me to a handstand race—let us begin!"

Neji and Tenten simply decided to go home for the day.

_____

**Author's Note: this is the beginning of the 'Change Arc', as I call it, since this chapter and the next will both center around some of the characters being 'changed' into Marvel Characters. Sasuke is now the Punisher and Lee is the Green Goblin. Next chapter will be Hinata, Sakura, and someone else…**

**Regarding the Yakumo poll, the votes stand at:**

**Mysterio: 7**

**Doctor Strange: 4**

**Thus, the Master Illusionist triumphs over the Sorcerer Supreme! Yakumo will become Mysterio! All other polls are still open for the time being.**


	6. Cat, Rogue, and Assassin

Change

Act Three: Running Through the Shadows

(A year and a half after the Uchiha Massacre…)

Hinata cried—which caused her father to hit her again, even harder.

"You pathetic weakling—Hyuga don't shed tears! Your sister Hanabi is ten times the fighter you are! Even that branch cadet Neji is stronger than you!" Hiashi shouted, Byakugan activated.

"You must be the weakest Hyuga that ever lived—you can't even USE your Byakugan! You are a disgrace to the Clan, the Village, and you are a disgrace to your mother's memory. Get out of my sight _now_. I don't want to see you again without your Byakugan."

Unable to control herself, Hinata turned and ran with all she had—through the door, out of the building, and she tried to go back to her room. When a set of guards tried to ask where she was going—one of them even standing directly in her path—she didn't slow down, she just kept running and went right_ through_ him.

She kept running, phasing through people, objects, and even her own bedroom wall as she jumped onto her bed, sobbing into her pillow.

At first, she had simply wanted to get away from her father, but after a few minutes, she realized that she couldn't remember opening the door to her bedroom. For some reason, she thought she'd gone right through her wall.

"Don't be silly, of course you didn't run through the wall. You simply opened and closed the door like normal, but didn't notice it." That's what she tried telling herself, at any rate.

But in her heart, Hinata knew that it wasn't true. Getting up, he placed her hand on the wall and pushed.

Nothing happened. Then, she tried to actually go through it, like before, and her hand phased into the wall completely. Horrified, she pulled away and fell against her bed, barely holding in a scream.

Struggling to calm herself down, Hinata tried to think. For some reason, she was able to—looking for a suitable word, she settled on 'phase'—phase through solid objects, and even _people_. But she still had a physical body, so she wasn't some kind of ghost…

Putting on some clothes (she didn't care what at the moment), Hinata tried walking through her wall again—and succeeded.

Putting up a hood to avoid being recognized, Hinata simply walked down the street, trying to make some sense out of what was happening to her. She wasn't even paying attention to where she was going.

She kept phasing through walls, going from street to street in a straight line. She absentmindedly wondered why the Earth's gravity hadn't caused her to phase through solid ground beyond any hope of control. Perhaps she couldn't phase through the ground?

Kneeling down and putting her hand to the street, she phased without a problem.

"Maybe I'm immune to gravity like that…" she decided.

Shrugging, she realized that Hiashi would be even more furious than before when he found out how suddenly she'd left. Looking for him, she was shocked to find that she could now see in all directions for a good fifty feet or so.

She couldn't help but laugh bitterly at the irony: NOW she could her Byakugan, when she barely even cared anymore. She calmly continued home, trying to avoid phasing as much as possible. No one bothered stopping her.

Once she'd returned to her room, Hinata began contemplating her situation. She still wasn't sure what was happening to her body that enabled her to phase through solid objects, but she realized that if her father found out about it, he would do everything in his power to use it as an advantage—he'd be even worse than he already was.

Hinata decided that the best thing she could do at the moment was to keep her ability a secret… but telling Hiashi about her Byakugan might not be a bad idea.

Getting up, she activated her eyes, checking to see if she was alone. None of the other Hyuga had their Byakugan active at the moment, and there wasn't anyone around for a good forty feet or so. Smirking a little, she phased through her door and walked straight towards where she knew her father to be.

Suddenly, she stopped—why on Earth was she still calling him her father?! He may have contributed half the genetic matter required for her to exist, but that was about it. From now on, this man would have to _earn_ her respect.

Keeping her Byakugan active, she walked silently until she was about ten feet behind Hiashi; she'd somehow snuck up on him.

Putting as much contempt as she could into her voice, Hinata said, "All right Hiashi, I have my Byakugan. You can stop throwing temper tantrums about having a completely spineless and powerless daughter now. Although… you're pretty emotional for a Hyuga. Almost like a _commoner_, if you know what I mean."

Hinata was treading water, and she knew it, but Hiashi's face was almost priceless when he turned around to find that his daughter did indeed have her Byakugan activated, and even more so when she asked, "What—you never seen a girl before? Otherwise, quit staring at me you pompous bag of air."

Snarling, Hiashi picked her up and slammed her against the wall, demanding, "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!?!"

Smiling, she said, "You heard me—unless you're going deaf, of course. I called a pompous bag of air, you overgrown toddler."

Putting her back onto the floor, he said, "If you were not my daughter, I would kill you right now."

Shrugging and leaning against the wall, Hinata said, "Well based on that beating you gave me a couple of hours ago, I'd be willing to bet that you'd happily kill me anyway."

Turning her back on him, but keeping her Bloodline in effect, she said, "Hiashi, I used to respect you—even through all the abuse, both physical and verbal… I _loved _you. But now, I'm through with letting you walk all over me like before. If you want my respect, you will have to _earn_ it—a concept that, as a Hyuga noble, I'm sure you've never heard of."

When she turned the corner and was out of his sight, she phased through a wall.

Later, she reflected that she moved like a cat in the shadows.

"Cat… shadows… shadow… cat… Shadowcat? I like it."

(**And there you have it; Hinata has now become Shadowcat! I sort of struggled with this near the end. Oh, and if anybody's pissed off at me because of what happened at the start of the chapter…. I won't know unless you review, will I?**)

__________

Change

Act Four: Unwilling Rogue

(Three and a half years after the Uchiha Massacre—OR, six months before the present…)

Sakura Haruno was on her first date with a fourteen-year old named Karido Ushigonei (**just a name I made up off the top of my head that kinda/sorta sounds like Japanese—don't know if it means anything…**), and they were currently walking down an alley when Karido moved in for a kiss.

Lightly holding him back, Sakura said, "Sorry Karido-kun, but I don't kiss on first dates."

His green eyes narrowed with repressed fury as he asked, "Is that so? I think you can make an exception tonight."

He maliciously slammed her into a building wall and started kissing her—when suddenly, he screamed.

Sakura could feel him getting weaker, so she pushed him off and kicked him in the groin, before suddenly beating him senseless. She couldn't understand _why_ she was so violent, but instead of calming down as she hit him, Sakura just got angrier, and started feeling pain as well.

Suddenly, she saw herself through HIS eyes, and partially realized what was happening: somehow, she was absorbing his feelings—his very mind—by touching him. Horrified, she ran away, memories not her own still running through her head. Fleeing down the street, she absorbed thoughts and memories of other people as she bumped into them.

After she got home, she burst through the door, ran to her room, and hid herself in a corner, virtually in convulsions of fear and confusion. "Sakura, what's wrong?!" she heard her mother yell.

As she entered the room and tried reaching to her daughter, Sakura flinched away and shouted "DON'T TOUCH ME!!!" Taken aback, her mother asked, "Sakura, what on Earth is wrong? Did that boy do anything to you?!"

Sakura replied, "I don't know! I remember things that never happened to me! I-I-I hurt him without meaning to! He-he tried to make a move on me, b-but I was scared and suddenly, it was like I was inside his head, and I started hitting him harder and angrier than I'd ever hit anyone before… and I think I somehow took part of his mind when I was touching him—and I don't want it to happen to you too!"

Her confusion and worry increasing, Lua (**just picked a name on the spot, you understand**) touched Sakura's forehead, only to feel a rather peculiar sensation. She felt herself getting weaker—growing tired. Sakura's eyes flashed open as she pushed her mother away, saying, "Please—don't touch me! I don't want you to get hurt, but I can't stop it!"

Putting on a glove, Lua's face revealed heartbreak as she tried again, and this time felt no ill effects. "See honey? It's only skin-to-skin; it's not quite as horrible as we feared."

Sakura hugged her mother, trying to avoid as much skin contact as possible. But in the back of her mind, she couldn't help feeling that from then on, she had to make as little contact with other people—not just skin contact, but of any kind at all. She'd have to close herself off from the world to keep from hurting people—whether she wanted to, or not.

Sakura Haruno found herself as an unwilling Rogue.

_______

The next morning, Lua shook her daughter awake. Opening her eyes, Sakura asked, "Mom… what's happening? Are we going somewhere?"

"Yes sweetie. Last night, after you went to sleep, I asked Sandaime-sama what might be happening to you—if maybe we had some sort of bloodline, or if you were sick, or anything. He told me that he couldn't know until I took you to the Hospital for a blood test. I had originally planned to take you anyway, but this involves you too. It's your body, and I feel that you should make the decision."

Still somewhat discombobulated, Sakura shook her head to try and finish waking up. She said, "If what's happening to me can be fixed or controlled, then yes, I want the blood test." Dressing herself in black slacks, a dark grey long-sleeved shirt, and black slip-on shoes (like moccasins), Sakura found and put on a pair of dark sunglasses. She wasn't certain why, but she wanted to stay hidden as much as possible.

Leaving the house alone, Sakura tried to keep from touching people whenever possible. Stopping at a clothing store on the way, Sakura bought a pair of dark green gloves and put them on as soon as they were paid for. Continuing on to the Hospital, Sakura said, "I think I have a blood test today. Where do I go for it?"

The receptionist asked, "Name?"

"Sakura Haruno."

"I see. Go to room 307, and you'll find the Hokage's personal doctor waiting on you."

Inwardly shocked that she'd be tested by the Hokage's personal physician, Sakura realized that her mother must've been far more worried than Sakura had believed.

Going into the room, she saw a kind-looking man with entirely black eyes—including the sclera. There was no color anywhere on his body. It was all black or white; there were no shades of gray. His voice was rather silk-like as he said, "Please do not be alarmed. My name is Sui no Jakyo… my father was a priest of a demigod-like demon named Jashin, and my mother was from the Land of Water, hence the name. Even though it means 'Water Heathen', I am actually a rather pleasant person to be around, or so Sandaime-sama often tells me."

Sitting down in a chair, Sakura said, "Whatever you do, just don't touch my bare skin. It's nothing personal—I can't control it. When people touch me with their bare skin, they get hurt."

Putting on some latex gloves, Sui no Jakyo replied, "Yes, Sandaime-sama told me it had something to with that. I am simply going to extract a bit of blood, and see if I can find any type of abnormalities—such as infection, or perhaps markers that would indicate a bloodline. I have also been asked to map your genetic structure, or as much as I can, at any rate."

Confused, Sakura asked, "Why would you need to map my genetics?"

Amiably, the medic merely told her, "Well, it could be that this is genetic, but not necessarily a bloodline. It could be a recessive trait that for some reason obtained spontaneous dominance. For all I know, it could be any number of things. I won't know without a sample, though."

Nodding, Sakura exposed enough of her arm—up to her elbow—so that Jak, as his friends called him, could pad the site with a disinfectant, insert a needle and extract enough blood to fill a vial to be used for the testing, and then add another disinfectant bandage.

Smiling warmly, Jak said, "Now that I have the sample, it will take a couple of days or so to finish the testing. Until then, you're free to go."

Standing up in shock, Sakura asked, "But what if it's some kind of disease?! Other people could get it too, couldn't they?!"

Waving away her concerns, Jak answered, "I don't think so. Even if this _is_ the result of some sort of pathogen, neither your mother nor I seem to have contracted it, so I doubt that whatever you have is in any way infectious… except perhaps by a blood transfusion or something to that effect. You probably don't have anything to worry about, but if it really puts your mind at ease, then I won't stop you from putting yourself under quarantine in here."

Shrugging, Jak then turned to his desk and began preparations for the various types of examinations he needed to do.

Slightly comforted that her condition didn't seem infectious, Sakura decided that she should go to the park and kill some time.

Little did she know that once she arrived, Sakura would encounter a kindred spirit.

__________

(**Hinata has become the Shadowcat and Sakura is now—or rather, is on the path to becoming—Rogue. I won't go into Sakura's 'kindred spirit' just yet—saving that for later—but I said I'd have three people transformed in this chapter, and it's three people I'll have; ON TO ROUND THREE, FOLKS!!**)

________

Change

Act Three: The Child Assassin

Tenten's day of training had been even more harshly grueling than usual—Lee was still testing his Glider and other tricks, but hadn't been able to beat Neji again, since he no longer had the element of surprise. Granted, he'd come really, REALLY close that time he showed up with the 'Razor Bats' added to his Pumpkin Bombs (Tenten called them Pumpkin Bombs because they were bombs that looked like pumpkins. Strangely, Neji didn't seem to grasp this concept, as he always called them 'The Orange Balls of Death').

Tenten was so exhausted that she practically fell down right after she made it through the door. Her father, reading his newspaper in the next room asked, "Let me guess—either Neji can hit harder and longer with his Eight Trigrams, or Lee cooked up a new batch of Pumpkin Bombs. Which was it?"

Tenten said, "Actually… both. Lee made a bomb that explodes into a bunch of little bombs THEN explodes, and Neji can do Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms. Dad, you've got to help me—I swear, I'm falling behind those two!"

Grimacing at the thought of those 'Multi-Bombs', or whatever Lee wanted to call them, Masamune replied, "I've been waiting for you to say that. Tenten, it's clear that between Neji's natural genius—although he's an asshole, the way you describe him—and Lee's uncanny affinity for mechanics and chemicals, you need an edge to stay in the game. And I know just the thing for you. Tenten, have I ever told you the story of our ancestor Elektra?"

"No, I don't think so." Picking herself off the ground through force of will and subsequently plopping down in the comfiest chair she could find, she asked, "Just who exactly was Elektra?"

Her father, whose full name was Sengo Masamune, began the tale.

"Five hundred years ago, a being of immeasurable power known as the Beyonder created rift in the fabric of space-time, causing the walls between dimensions to fail. A number of other-dimensional people came were stranded on our world, and eventually settled here. One of them was a legendary assassin by the name of Elektra. She was a master of nearly every weapon known to man, and had supernatural powers. She could see the future, to an extent, and at times she could even bring back the dead. She also could sense the exact location of the people around her.

"One of our ancestors fell in love with Elektra, and that was the recorded beginning of our clan. We have kept scrolls detailing her methods and her abilities—if you don't want to fall behind your teammates, Tenten, I can begin training you in the ways of the Hand."

Determined to keep up with her teammates, Tenten agreed.

Sengo got up and said, "It will take years to fully master it, and it won't be easy… not at all. For the next month, I will not be your father, but your teacher, your teacher, and your worst nightmare. Do you still think you can handle it?"

Grinning, Tenten said, "Well then, Masamune-sensei… I wouldn't have it any other way."

For the next month, she continually trained under her father in using various weapons. She was already proficient with various throwing weapons such as kunai and shuriken, but was somewhat weak with close-ranged equipment such as swords, axes, and other tools.

But after a bit of experimenting, Tenten found that her favorite weapon was the sai. Much like a kunai knife, it could be used both for close-combat AND as a throwing weapon, but was much better for either purpose. She also discovered that she sort of liked the color red.

Her father had taught her to become a true Weapons Specialist, and a number of other things: meditation, how to focus her spiritual energy independently of her chakra, and the theories of low-level energy projection.

Returning to her team, Neji almost had a heart attack seeing Tenten. She'd let her hair down, was wearing dark pants, and a vaguely Western-style sleeveless shirt (**Think of how Elektra looks near the end of the Daredevil movie**).

Long story short, she looked like a real femme fatale.

Pulling out a sai and twirling it around in her hand, Tenten asked, "So… what'd I miss?"

___________

**FINALLY!!!! This was a REAL pain in the ass to finish. Naruto, Sasuke, Lee, Hinata, Sakura, and Tenten have now been changed. Kiba, Shino, Shikamaru, and Ino will happen during the Chunin Exams, whereas Choji, Yakumo, and Neji will occur on mission before the Exam. In the next chapter, I will finally introduce 'Team Psycho', and with it, Electro!!!**

**Meta-Z (my preferred nickname on this site)**


	7. Team Formation: Psycho!

Team Psycho Emerges!

As Naruto got out of bed, the first thing he noticed was the smell of… waffles. The second thing he noticed was that Anko was currently wearing purple sweatpants and a semi-baggy t-shirt. Vaguely wondering why she'd gotten up so early, Naruto shrugged it off, had the symbiote cover him in fairly good clothing, and simply prepared for breakfast.

As he got a plate and a fork, Naruto asked, "You seem to be in a good mood today, Anko-neechan. What's going on?"

Looking up from her waffles, Anko swallowed and asked, "What makes you think I'm in a good mood?"

His eyebrow raised, Naruto virtually deadpanned as he told her, "Anko-neechan… you made waffles today. You never make waffles unless you're in a good mood."

Anko just shrugged as she muttered, "Eh… true enough. At any rate, you're graduating from the Academy, I have a Genin team to test, and I'm just feeling… so goddamn jazzed today. It's kind of freaking me out, to be honest."

Laughing along with her, Naruto thought back to the first time he'd met Anko.

_

* * *

_

(Flashback!)

(Two years ago)

Standing before the Council, Naruto asked, "Why am I here again?"

A councilwoman named Karen Page kindly said, "Naruto-san, last week we passed a law stating that all children under the age of fifteen without a legal guardian must go into foster care or an orphanage. It has come to my attention that neither of the orphanages in Hidden Leaf care to have you under their roof, and sadly, I haven't been able to find anyone who would willingly take care of you as you deserve."

As the Hokage knew, Karen Page was one of the few council members who were open-minded enough to realize that Naruto wasn't the Nine-Tailed Fox. Of course, he wasn't exactly human either—not that anyone aside from Yakumo and the Sandaime knew about that, however….

Another council member, this time one of Naruto's political enemies (so to speak) said, "So, with Sandaime-sama's permission, I have arranged for your care to be considered as a mission. It's far from perfect, but in essence, we will basically pay someone to take care of you. We have also decided who will be your caretaker."

Karen looked up, surprised. "But Councilor Matsumoto, I thought we were still in deliberation about that."

Sneering, Matsumoto stated, "Oh, we voted and approved the measure—you were sick that day, I believe."

Turning back to Naruto, his eyes took a rather unpleasant gleam as he said, "She will be here in just a couple of minutes. Her name is Anko Mitarashi, by the way."

Her eyes widening in horror, Karen threw her face in her hands; she had wanted Naruto to be taken care of, certainly—but Anko! Why not someone sensible, like Kurenai?

The meeting adjourned, Naruto just went outside and sat on the curb, waiting for this Anko to show up. It was starting to rain.

A few minutes later, a purple-haired woman walked up to him and asked, "Are you Naruto Uzumaki?"

Looking up, Naruto decided that she had a fairly attractive figure—or he would have, if he were a few years older. She wore a brown trench coat with a hood raised, with a fishnet shirt and a mini-skirt. He replied, "Yeah. I'm Naruto. Are you Anko?"

Nodding, Anko opened an umbrella and held out her hand. "Get up kid. Unless you prefer to sit out in the rain?"

Smiling, but not with his eyes, Naruto took her hand and stood up, taking temporary residence under the umbrella.

On the way to her apartment, they didn't talk much—Anko merely told him that they'd discuss it inside.

Her abode was on the fourth floor of the complex, and in fact, the only inhabited residence ON that floor. Taking off her shoes, hanging up her coat, and tossing her umbrella into the corner, Anko suddenly noticed that Naruto's clothes were completely dry. Deciding to ask about it later, Anko sprawled on the couch, while Naruto seated himself in a chair.

To break the rather awkward silence, Naruto asked, "So what's your story? That nice woman on the council seemed kind of upset that you were picked for this."

Shrugging, Anko said, "Well, my sensei, Orochimaru, is one of the most infamous traitors known to the Leaf, I mostly fight like he did, seeing as how no one's been willing to teach me since, and I basically inherited his ability to enjoy other people's pain at times. Aside from that, I don't have the ghost of a clue."

Nodding in a way that reminded her of an old man, Naruto said, "I see. That explains a lot."

Slightly raising her eyebrow, Anko asked, "So what's your story, kid? Why the hell am _I_ of all people being paid to take care of you?"

Naruto said, "Well, it all started about ten years ago when the Fourth Hokage sealed the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon into my body almost immediately after my birth. The Third Hokage was an idiot and told the older generation about it, and they've hated me ever since—with a few notable exceptions, of course. About a couple of years ago, I was almost killed by a couple of dumb thugs in an alley. People knew, but no one bothered to help. That was when I found the Symbiote—an alien life-form that survives by bonding with a host organism… in this case, me. Once we bonded, I was overcome in a fit of rage and killed all three of those idiots. The symbiote keeps me alive, and I do the same. However, I have to take the lives of other people to keep from losing my own. Since that night, I've killed at least seventy-five criminals—I try to keep my… diet from including people who've done nothing wrong. Aside from all that, I haven't the ghost of a clue."

Nodding to herself, Anko simply muttered, "Hrm."

After a few minutes, she asked, "So again: why do you think they paired us up specifically?"

Naruto, who was sitting sideways in his chair and subsequently leaning over the side, raised his head and told her,: "Meh. They probably expect us to go crazy and kill each other or something."

Straightening up, Anko asked, "Well I don't know about you, but I'd prefer to live if given the chance, so how do you suggest we get past this?"

Grinning deviously, Naruto said, "I say we keep each other alive, just to piss 'em off."

Suddenly matching his grin, Anko said, "Kid, I like the way you think. I believe this is going to work just fine."

_(End Flashback!)_

* * *

Since that day, Naruto and Anko had virtually taken to each other like fish to water. They thought of each other as siblings, and occasionally, Anko would even let Naruto sneak out on missions with her.

Between the two of them, about sixty bandits died that week. (Naruto/Carnage hadn't fed for a couple of months, so Anko let him get most of the kills.)

But the thing Naruto liked best about life with Anko was that she didn't tease him about Yakumo. The most she'd do was to make a little joke every now and then or put on a knowing smile, but other than that, she left him alone.

Naruto asked, "So you get to torture a Genin team today, huh? Who's on it?"

Anko shrugged and said, "Don't know yet. All I know is that I'm supposed to give the survival test for Team 6."

Getting into a pose like the famous statue of 'The Thinker', Naruto asked, "But what if _I'm_ on Team 6?"

Anko blinked for a moment, and then shrugged as she said, "Then you get to help me torture the other two, in that case. But seeing as we're pretty much family, I don't think that'll happen."

Nodding, Naruto just dug in to his waffles before heading 'changing' into a set of clothes suitable for outside wear: black cargo pants, shinobi tabi and sandals, a blood-red t-shirt, and a black flak jacket.

He knew it looked somewhat like Jonin attire, but Naruto didn't care. It looked badass, and he _was_ badass. To him, it was fairly simple math.

Stepping outside the door, Naruto leapt to rooftop level and stuck to a wall, using it as a springboard for added propulsion.

Using his immense strength and agility, Naruto rocketed towards the Kurama residence, so he could go the rest of the way with Yakumo. Originally, she had been privately tutored and hadn't gone to the Academy, because her body was rather frail. She wasn't able to walk unaided for more than a few minutes before running out of breath, but in her eyes there burned a flame of determination that blazed so brightly, none could rival it save Naruto himself.

Although his adrenaline high would have normally rendered him intolerable for most of the day, Yakumo was one of the only three people who could easily calm him down.

Just like every other day, Yakumo was walking down the street as Naruto landed RIGHT next to her from a particularly wild jump. Landing solidly on his feet, Naruto walked alongside his friend and absentmindedly brushed himself off.

"So, how'd you sleep last night?"

Knowing exactly what he meant, Yakumo said, "Just as soundly as ever. My dreams were peaceful, and nobody died."

Nodding to himself, Naruto said, "That's always good to hear."

Then he suggested, "Guess what happened to me this morning."

"Hrm… I don't know—what happened to you this morning?"

"Anko-neechan made waffles today."

Nearly as familiar with the Snake Jonin's habits as Naruto was, all Yakumo could say was: "Wow. She's in a good mood."

Nodding, Naruto surreptitiously looked at Yakumo's attire; over the years, he could gauge Anko's mood by what she made for breakfast, and Yakumo's by what she wore.

Her sky-blue yukata indicated the carefree attitude she'd woken up with, while her bright red scarf revealed that absolutely nothing could ruin her day—she'd kill people with a dreamy smile, it came down to it.

They made small talk to pass the time while continuing the trek to the Academy.

Once in the classroom, they simply picked seats (next to each other, of course). For some reason, the concept of assigned seats had never occurred to their teacher.

Naruto proceeded to zone out until Iruka-sensei showed up; Yakumo silently mused about how Naruto really was a creature of habit.

Seeing as how the tests had all run their course the day before, the only people present were the ones who'd graduated. Not bothering to tune in for Iruka's lecture, Naruto simply continued to zone out until he heard an announcement.

"Because there is an uneven number of graduates this year, two of you will be on a team with someone who's already graduated. That will be you two, Naruto, Yakumo. You can go ahead and wait outside. You and Keith Dillon will be on Team 6; your sensei is Anko Mitarashi."

Naruto practically bugged out for a moment, hearing that his Neechan was going to be his sensei, before shrugging it off and getting ready for one hell of a day. Yakumo, also a bit wierded out, wondered if she should start worrying.

Shrugging, the pair left the room (and subsequently, the building) to wait.

After a couple of minutes, a fifteen year-old with blonde hair, brown eyes, and one hell of a bad attitude walked up and asked, "You guys Team 6? My name's Keith Dillon, your teammate."

No sooner than he'd spoken had Anko poofed into existence right behind him. "All right you three, since you're on my team, we're going to do some introductions. Excluding you, Keith, we already know each other, so on our part, it's mostly for your benefit. I'll go first.

"My name is Anko Mitarashi, and while on duty you will refer to me as Sensei, got it? I like dumplings, my foster brother Naruto-kun, and killing people on missions. I fucking hate ninety percent of the people in this Village, and the feeling's mutual. I also hate when people do things half-assed, since that'll get you killed on a mission. My hobbies include hanging out, killing people on missions, and freaking people out otherwise. I'm going to kill that bastard of a sensei Orochimaru, and then… I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Naruto-kun, you're next."

With a devilish glint in his eye, Naruto said, "Well, where to start? I suppose it all began thirteen years ago, when the Fourth Hokage sealed the Nine-Tailed Fox into my body. I became a Village pariah when the Third Hokage decided to be an idiot by telling the older generation about said Nine-Tailed Fox. Numerous attempts have been made to kill me, and four years ago, a trio of teenaged thugs nearly succeeded. However, I managed to kill those bastards and have since slept soundly every night. Anyway, I like ramen, my friend Yakumo-chan, my Anko-neechan, and I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie. I hate assholes, bastards, and jerks of all kinds. My dream is to become Hokage and have a hell of a time while I'm at it."

Nodding, Anko pointed to Yakumo and said, "You're up."

"My name is Yakumo Kurama. I'm a Genjutsu specialist, and I hate being manipulated by anyone. I like tea, sushi, Naruto-kun, and meeting my goals. I guess I've already accomplished my dream of being a shinobi; so my new dream is to become the best Genjutsu user in the Village."

Taking it upon himself to start, Keith said, "My name is Keith Dillon. I graduated from the Academy three years ago, and was placed on a team with two of my best friends under a person whom I loved like a mother. On a mission eighteen months ago, we encountered opposition from Rain shinobi. I'm the only one who made it out in good enough condition to keep going on missions. That bastard killed my teammates and put Emiko-sensei in a coma—I swear I won't rest until I kill him in the most painful way imaginable. Aoi Rakusho… I will see him in pieces if it's the last thing I do. After that—if there even IS an after—I guess I'll have to move on."

Shaking himself from his dark thoughts, Keith continued, "I like rock music, metal, and pizza; I hate anyone who thinks I'm weak just because I don't come from a major clan and I have a foreign name; and people who piss me off seem to have a strange habit of winding up in the hospital shortly afterwards. I specialize in Lightning-Style jutsu."

Nodding, Anko smiled and said, "Normally, I'm supposed to give you a survival test now, to see if you're actually worth becoming Genin. However, Keith would go ahead and tell you that the major purpose of it is teamwork, and I'm fairly certain you'd make a pretty lethal team. So instead, I'll just pass you right now—but I want to see just where you three stand. So we're going to have a little spar: you three, one-on-one, against me. You probably won't actually win, but we should at least know what each other can do."

Yakumo wanted to go ahead and get her test out of the way, but first she said, "I forgot to say this earlier, but I have a disease that prevents me from being very active physically. My Genjutsu is pretty much the only reason I actually could become a shinobi in the first place. That said, I'm ready."

Nodding again, Anko suddenly began making hand-signs in an attempt to counter Yakumo's Genjutsu. Realizing that it had started on eye contact, Anko also realized that Yakumo was invading all five senses. The outlines of various shapes were becoming a little blurry, and Yakumo's voice had a strange ring to it as she said, "You legs are like lead… you're becoming tired… you eyes, they grow weary…"

Anko could actually feel the incantations beginning to take their toll, so she switched to a different set of handsigns before shouting, "**Fire-Style: Fireball Jutsu!**" The stream of fire that erupted from her mouth threatened to engulf the girl whole, but a shield of water suddenly appeared and absorbed the brunt of the attack.

To avoid the rest of it, Yakumo had leapt out the way, spraining her ankle in the process. "Damn it… I should've been more careful!"

"Don't worry about it—you did what you could with what you had available."

Naruto stepped up next and said, "Okay then—let's try not to kill each other, eh?"

Grinning in a manner borderline psychotic, Anko replied, "Fair enough kid—**Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!**"

A number of snakes erupted from her sleeves and raced towards Naruto, who leaped out of the way and threw a spread of shuriken at them, since he was trying to hide the symbiote. Anko then started spewing fireballs at him, and even with Spider-sense, Naruto was hard pressed to dodge. He hadn't told Anko about the symbiote's vulnerability to fire yet.

Continuing his evasive maneuvers, Naruto had a flash of inspiration as he discreetly formed a symbiote-kunai before making sure it looked like a regular kunai as he threw it into the oncoming blaze.

The effect was instantaneous—it was almost like throwing a can of gasoline into the path of a flamethrower: the ultra-flammable symbiote substance caused the fireball to explode, creating an even bigger blast, but it stopped moving forward, and that had been the goal.

As he landed on the ground, Anko said, "Okay, good enough for now. Keith, you're up."

Nodding, he cracked his knuckles and said, "Bring it, sensei!"

Once more grinning psychotically, Anko cried out, "**Fire-Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!**"

As the barrage of burning projectiles hurtled towards the teen ninja, he made three handsigns and shocked all three of his comrades—figuratively, in this case.

Holding his hands to the fire, electricity began emanating from his fingertips as he yelled, "**Ninja Art: Spark Shield!**" The sparks started to coalesce into a barrier that intercepted and stopped the assault.

Then, he leapt into the air and called out another jutsu: "**Lightning-Style: Divine Onslaught!**"

A massive electrical blast-wave went screaming through the air, and could have severely injured Anko if not for her **Earth-Style: Rock Wall** counter-defense.

As he landed on the balls of his feet, Keith panted heavily and muttered, "Never used those two so close together before…. I didn't think it would be such a drain…"

Also panting slightly; her wall hadn't fallen to the attack, as she had tried to sustain it with her chakra—but damn, that was pretty good for a Genin.

Quickly consuming a chakra pill, Anko said, "All right you three, you were fairly good individually. As a team, you might even stand a chance against me if I went all-out. Normally, we'd go on a bunch of D-Ranked missions to promote teamwork, but instead, we'll just work on that here. In the meantime, I'll show you the first exercise for chakra control—tree walking."

To illustrate, Anko focused chakra into her feet, before walking straight up the nearest tree without a care in the world. Keith said, "Anko-sensei, I can already do this."

Sitting on a tree branch, Anko simply replied, "Then you can save me the trouble of explaining and do it yourself, can't you?"

Sighing, Keith turned to his teammates and said, "Okay you two—you just have to focus chakra into your feet so you can stick to the tree. Too little, and you won't stick. Too much, and you'll fly off."

Naruto said, "I see…" and headed for the tree and walked up it.

He kept walking until he was all the way at the top, and then walked back down to find all three staring at him.

"What?"

Keith said, "Naruto… you didn't even focus your chakra at all."

Naruto shrugged and said, "I can't help it! If I want to stick to something, I stick to it automatically. I want to stick to the tree when I climb it, so I stick to it without chakra."

Keith sighed and said, "But Naruto, it doesn't work that way. You have to use chakra to get better."

"But I want to climb up the tree! Are you saying I should try to climb it… and want to _NOT_ stick to it?! But that's stupid!"

Shaking her head, Anko decided that Naruto would simply have to do without.

While they were arguing, Yakumo had been trying the exercise herself, and had made it about halfway up. After another couple of minutes, Keith shouted, "Okay then! I was trying to help, that's all."

Then, in a sing-song kind of tone, Yakumo asked, "If you boys are done arguing down there, I'd like to know what we're doing next!"

When they looked up, they found her sitting on a branch much like Anko had done, swinging her legs.

Anko sighed and said, "Okay you three, that's all for today. In fact, I think we should try and get to know each other a bit better before I start teaching you anything. Teamwork and mutual trust are just as important on the battlefield as combat ability. Who wants to see a movie?"

Yakumo dropped from her perch, but underestimated the distance—only for Naruto to catch her in his arms. "My my my, this seems familiar, doesn't it? It's almost like you keep saving me from certain or probable death, Naru-kun."

Smirking, Naruto replied, "Indeed, 'Kumo-chan. I hope this doesn't become a habit."

"Me getting in trouble, or you saving me?"

As Naruto sat her down, they both laughed as Naruto answered, "I meant the first—no problems with the second, though."

Keith, bringing them back on topic, asked, "I don't know, that depends on the movie."

"I was going to let you three decide."

Remembering that it was the twentieth anniversary of the original _Alien_ movie coming to theatres—The Konoha Cinema was having a special event that week—Naruto suggested it.

Keith said, "_Alien_? That was a good movie I wouldn't mind seeing again."

Anko hadn't seen it yet, and Yakumo had read reviews but not actually seen it.

**

* * *

**

If anyone thinks that I did a bad job with this chapter, I'll probably agree with you. I just couldn't really get enthusiastic about this one, and it was mostly filler anyway. The only major important parts were introducing Keith and getting the team formation over with. Oh, and there was a point to Naruto being unable to complete the basic chakra control exercise. Kudos to anyone who can guess later ramifications of this. Dirty Reid, you don't count, since I told you ages ago.


	8. Valley of Spirits: Spirit of Vengeance

Valley of Spirits: Spirit of Vengeance

Six weeks ago, Team 6 had been formed and—considering Anko's bloodlust, Yakumo's borderline schizophrenia, Keith's attitude, and Naruto's killing sprees—began operating the codename of Team Psycho.

Every so often, they'd watch movies on time off—and for numerous reasons (not the least of which being that Anko was absolutely _terrifying_ when she felt like it), only went on C-ranked missions.

Today, though, was different.

"All right you three, today our mission is B-ranked: we're going to a place called the Valley of Spirits. Once we arrive, we are to protect the settlement there from bandit and rogue ninja attacks for as long as necessary while attempting to wipe out all of said enemies. The town we're supposed to be guarding is called Inji Ko-ru, by the way."

None of them had ever heard of the place, but the name—both of the town and its location—were pretty… foreboding to say the least.

Shrugging it off, Keith asked, "How powerful are the ninja we might encounter supposed to be?"

Anko smirked and told him, "C- to B-rank; it's almost enough to warrant making it an A-Rank mission, but we'll have some help once we get there. Get home and start packing for at least a week of travel—we'll meet back here in twenty minutes. Now move it!"

On her signal, the three Genin departed, Naruto dropping off Yakumo at her place since he was so much faster.

And sure enough, right at twenty minutes later, the three had reassembled at the meeting point.

"I'll take point. Naruto and Yakumo will follow me in a triangle formation, with Naruto carrying Yakumo if she gets too tired. Keith, you bring up the rear."

Nodding, they seemingly disappeared, but really were just moving faster than normal eyes could follow.

Things were quiet for most of the way; not quiet enough to warrant suspicion, but a normal 'business-as-usual' kind of quiet. On the second day, however, Anko suddenly shouted "Get down!"

Naruto's Spider-sense had caused him to react just a split-second before, pulling Yakumo and Keith to the ground while practically flattening him in the process. It wasn't the most graceful landing, but it kept them alive.

Looking up, Naruto was shocked to find someone smirking down at him.

With an ultra-sharp circular blade slung over her shoulder, the black-haired woman looked positively lethal. Her lips appeared purple and there were dark rings around her eyes.

She looked at the team, and upon seeing Anko, said, "It's about time I found you, Neechan."

Shocked, the snake mistress exclaimed, "Neechan?! Just who the hell are you?!"

With a bitter smile, the woman said, "I doubt you'd remember me, Neechan. After all, we haven't seen each other since I was born. I know about you, however, because Mizukage-sama was dumb enough to tell me who I really was."

Suspicious, Anko asked, "And just who are you really? I can't trust you until you prove to me you're not some kind of spy."

At this, the woman sighed with relief and said, "Neechan, I can prove I'm on your side—that I'm your little sister—if you just give me a chance."

Trying to reach a decision, Anko settled with a brief delaying tactic.

"Well, my team is currently on a mission. I guess you can come along… but you'll answer to me _and_ my genin. Got it?"

The woman suddenly leaped forward and hugged Anko around the waist, saying, "I promise you won't regret this Neechan!"

Naruto suddenly spoke up, "Two questions: 1) what's your name, and 2) why did you throw that spread of shuriken at us?"

The young woman scratched the back of her head, saying, "My name's Tira! As for why I threw the shuriken—I couldn't think of another way to get your attention! Sorry 'bout that, by the way…"

Sighing, Anko merely had the group continue to the Valley of Spirits, listening to Tira's story on the way.

"Actually Neechan, I'm only your half-sister, because we have the same dad but when your mom died he apparently got married again and his new wife had me about four years later! However, or so Mizukage-baka told me, I was abducted shortly afterward and raised in Mist to be some sort of superweapon, because they thought I had a genetic anomaly that makes me more powerful or something like that, but if I do have it then it never manifested. Anyway, I wound up becoming one of the Seven Swordsmen—even though I'm really more of a _Swordswoman_—and because I knew the official story about me was total bullshit, I eventually tricked Mizukage-baka into telling me the truth! And when I found out that I was your little sister, Neechan, I started trying to think of how I might be able to get out of Mist and find you, so here I am!"

Tira mostly seemed to just prattle on in a similar manner, but in her movements—hell, even subtleties in her tone of voice—revealed that she was just as deadly (and at least as bloodthirsty) as her so-called Neechan.

Severely interested, Keith asked, "If the Mizukage had you abducted and tried to use you as a tool, then how did you weasel the truth out of him?"

Tira smiled like an innocent six year-old as she said, "I got him drunk and flirted with him 'till he told me what I wanted to know!"

At that, Yakumo almost tripped over a branch. "But isn't the Mizukage older than the Sandaime Hokage?"

Smiling just as sweetly, but much more darkly now, Tira chirped, "Not anymore, he ain't—'cause age don't count when you're dead, see?"

Gawking, Naruto asked, "You killed the Mizukage?"

At this, Tira pouted and said, "The crazy old perv had it coming, I swear!"

Naruto, Yakumo, and Keith thought to themselves, _'That settles it—they ARE related.'_

Anko, however, was trying to think. Tira—known both as the "Misguided Angel of Death" and the "Jester of the Mist"—was known for her insane pleasure in taking lives on the battlefield, her unusual style of fighting, and the fact that she was both bipolar AND had split personalities.

Apparently, Tira's 'Jolly' side was dominant for the time being, and seemingly posed no threat. But if her other side took over… things could get very, very dangerous.

An hour or so later, the group of five showed up at Inji Ko-ru, where they were greeted by a man who looked—quite frankly—like a bum. His jacket was a bit tattered, his gloves had no fingers, and he wore what looked sort of like a cowboy hat.

He said, "My name's Onimaru Kasaiken. And before you ask about my name, my father was a religious fanatic who for some reason believed that I would catalyze Armageddon. He couldn't kill me outright—he considered fratricide of any kind the worst of all sins—so he called me 'Demon Man' instead. Do I look like a demon to you?"

His voice was one that on the surface appeared calm, even slightly amused, but deep down spoke of great, repressed sorrow.

The question had been rather sarcastic, so Keith gave a sarcastic response: "Hrm. Well, considering the noticeable lack of horns, cloven hooves, tails—forked or otherwise—along with the fact that your teeth and nails are exceptionally _un_pointed… no, you look just like the average town bum who grew up with a religion-obsessed and probably alcoholic father. Yessir, I can firmly vouch that you are, in fact, a human."

Yakumo was about to berate him for being rude when Onimaru burst out laughing. Eventually, he managed to get out "From a kid your age, that's refreshing." Then, to the adults, he said, "I don't know what you're paying him, but give him a raise anyway."

Still shaking a bit from laughter, Onimaru led the group into town and began briefing them on the situation. "Lately, we've been under siege from bandits. Normally, they'd just come and take what they want, but they aren't shinobi. Or at least... that used to be the case. But recently we received a message saying that tonight, we either give up or they come at us full-force. And they've got rogue ninja with them. Supposedly, their leader is a Jonin. Normally, I'd be able to handle all of them myself, but I wouldn't be able to fight the entire syndicate and protect the town at once. Because of that, we decided to hire you shinobi for aid."

Her curiosity peaked, Yakumo asked, "Then do _you_ fight the bandit army while we stay back and defend the town? You don't look like much of a fighter…."

Onimaru sighed and said, "Correct. I don't look like much right now, but when night falls…" He shook his head and finished, "well, you'll find out then."

Frowning at the man's hesitance but choosing to let it slide for now, Anko simply nodded and told her genin to try and build some extra fortifications or to set traps.

In the ensuing silence, she just _knew_ she'd forgotten something, but for the life of her couldn't figure out—

"What about me, Neechan? Watcha want me ta do, huh?"

Oh. _That_. Scratching her chin in thought, Anko said, "Tira… you go help set up traps. Then, when the fur starts to fly, you just go ahead and… do what you're best at. OK?"

Raising her hands into the air, Tira said, "Yippee! Don't worry about a thing, Neechan! I'm gonna set traps like you wouldn't believe!"

As the raven-haired bipolar schizoid left to start making traps, Anko threw her hand into her face and muttered, "I need a drink…."

Onimaru, still snickering, said, "I'd get you one if I could, but the sake is under lock and key right now. Nobody gets drunk until after the battle."

"Who said I wanted sake? Is there anything stronger around here?"

With a shrug, he replied, "Not that I'd be able to get you. Yeah, there used to be rum and whiskey, but we sold the rum and already drank all of the whiskey. Granted, there's still the vodka, but I don't think you want that."

Quickly growing irritated, Anko growled, "Give me the goddamn vodka. _Now_. Do it for my sanity, please. Because I swear that if you don't get me _a_ drink now, I'm going to take every bottle of alcohol in this pathetic little town in gulp it in the course of an hour after the battle."

Pondering this, Onimaru just shrugged again pulled out a bottle of vodka, and said, "Here you go. Thou mayest drink to thy heart's content."

Without any hesitation whatsoever, Anko took the bottle from his grasp and gulped some down before he could do anything about it. Then she called Naruto over and had him store it in his symbiote. "I'll be needing that later, so make sure to keep it safe."

"All right, Neechan. Although, you really shouldn't drink alcohol. It'll kill off your brain cells and damage your liver until you die from it."

Laughing, Anko ruffled his hair and said, "I'm a ninja, so I'll probably die young anyway. It's good to know that you care, Naru-kun, but sometimes… you're just not living unless you're on the edge of death."

Raising an eyebrow but not replying, Naruto just went back to work, mumbling something about "crazy Neechans—it's already affecting her mind."

Anko froze at that. Naruto had used 'Neechan' in the plural, meaning that he was already beginning to consider Tira as an older sister.

And _that_ meant that Tira wasn't triggering whatever sixth sense Naruto had that alerted him to danger.

Analyzing that, Anko realized that—since Naruto's sixth sense (or as he called it, 'Spider-Sense') was a hundred percent accurate and never failed—Tira wasn't a threat.

Relaxing now, Anko took another drink of vodka. "Damn, this stuff's good."

That night, a man in shoddy brown rags came in and asked, "Do you surrender?"

He held an oversized katana (**yes, you can imagine Sephiroth's Masamune if you want to**) and his eyes were fully dead.

Tira twirled her ring blade around her hands before saying, "Not a chance in hell!"

The man's voice dead as night, he simply replied, "So be it."

With that, he disappeared as numerous fireballs began falling towards Inji Ko-ru. Anko summoned a massive snake that was impervious to flame so that he could intercept them. Roughly the size of a Wal-Mart (**just assume that Konoha and the other Hidden Villages have a Wal-Mart in them**), the ember-red viper said in a silken voice, **"Ah, Anko-chan, what need have you of me tonight?"**

"Genkaiju-sama, I just need you to help protect this town from the bandits and rogue ninja. Oh, and don't eat Tira—we think she's my half-sister."

Nodding, the massive serpent began to do his mistress's bidding, wrapping himself in coils around Inji Ko-ru until it looked like the Roman Coliseum.

At the same time, Keith leapt into the fray, using electrified kunai and shuriken to deadly effect. Yakumo also began casting Genjutsu on various bandits, killing them with illusory weapons such as flying demonic scythes, levitating broadswords, and so on.

Naruto himself was in his element—a pure, unadulterated bloodbath. He actually started singing "Hell's Bells" by AC/DC!

"**I won't take no prisoners, won't spare no lives—nobody's putting up a fight!"** he wailed.

While the mass murder was going on, Tira had chosen to stay in the town to kill any that managed to get past Team Psycho and Genkaiju. A villager who saw her fight would later describe her style of attack as "a lethal dance so beautiful, you just wanted to stop and watch—and while you were watching, she would kill you."

_______

As Onimaru Kasaiken backed into a corner, faced with over two dozen bandits, one of them said, "Give up you fool—you're not even a ninja. You can't beat us!"

With a sardonic grin, he agreed, "No, I'm not a shinobi."

Then, he changed: his entire body was engulfed in flames, until he looked like a flaming skeleton. His clothes were still mostly intact, but a little tattered. As he started pulling out a chain—which also promptly lit on fire—Onimaru finished his sentence.

"**I'm worse."**

Then, he used the fiery chain as a whip, slicing three of the scum apart as he yelled, **"Vermin!"**

One of them tried punching him in the face, only to simultaneously break and burn his hand. Grinning, Onimaru said, **"My turn, you rat,"** as he gave the idiot a stiff right hook to the gut, going right through the stomach.

Then, revealing what looked like some kind of crossbow—but without the actual bow; just the stock and the place where the bolt was put—Onimaru pulled the trigger, unleashing a sudden burst of hellfire, which killed all but one of the remainder.

Then, being roughly shoved against the wall, the last man asked, "What… what the fuck are you?!"

Deciding that there couldn't be any harm in answering, Onimaru said, **"I'm the Ghost Rider."**

Then, his voice took on an even darker tone—one that the occasional high-level shinobi would recognize as meaning that the Ghost Rider was about to use an incantation.

"**Look into my eyes… your soul is stained with the blood of innocents. Feel the misery they suffered at your hands. Suffer the Penance Stare!"**

As the bandit was forced to watch every sin he'd ever committed through the eyes of the victim, his soul burned until he was simply a statue made of brimstone.

As the Rider turned to hunt more sinners, he struck out with his chain, so that the poor bastard's petrified corpse was completely shattered.

______

Having slain all the bandits around him, Keith began to look for a teammate to help when he felt it.

The stench of ozone and rain that was permanently engraved into his mind.

Turning, Keith was already in the middle of hand-signs when he shouted, "DIE YOU BASTARD!!!"

And as he lunged at Aoi Rokusho, he called out the name of his jutsu: **"LIGHTNING-STYLE: ELECTROMAGNETIC MURDER!"**

As he prepared to fire the blast at point-blank range, Aoi moved his legendary Raijin sword to block…

______

**Cliffhanger!! Yes, I'm evil. But I updated twice in one morning, so not really.**

**Translations:**

**Onimaru = Demon Man**

**Kasaiken = Firefist (kasai = fire; ken = fist)**

**Therefore, Onimaru Kasaiken = Demon Man with a burning fist. (approx.)**

**Inji Ko-ru = Devil's Thrall (not exactly, but fairly close)**

**Genkaiju = Illusory monster (gen = illusion, as in "Genjutsu = illusion techniques"; kaiju = monster)**

**Raijin = Shinto God of Thunder**


	9. Valley of Spirits: Ride The Lightning

Valley of Spirits: Ride the Lightning 

As Aoi blocked Keith's attack using the Raijin sword, he swung upward and hit said genin, knocking him away. In fact, Keith had been hit with the backlash of his own jutsu as well as the legendary blade that, supposedly, was created by the Thunder God himself.

As he was thrown away into some trees, a massive electrical surge began building up, arcs flying out of his body and scorching anything they hit.

He was in such pain, he almost wanted to die.

Then, he remembered his reason to fight. His friends could very well need him, and the man he'd been trying to kill for so long was right in front of him!

Somehow finding the will to stand, the pain suddenly vanished.

His body was still crackling with electricity, but now…

"I'm abso-fucking-lutely WIRED!"

With that declaration, Keith jumped to his feet and launched himself towards his opponent, using a stream of electricity for propulsion.

Aoi was, needless to say, shocked beyond belief. The backlash of chakra—and the sheer amount of elecricity from that collision—should've killed him, or anyone else!

He quickly threw some senbon, only to be deflected with an electromagnetic barrier.

Grinning like a madman, Kieth shouted, "Now let's try this again. Take two: **Lightning-Style: Electromagnetic Murder!!"**

But when Aoi tried to block the attack this time, he found that the Raijin sword wouldn't activate. And just before he was burned to cinders, he realized what had happened.

'_That bastard… absorbed the power of the Raijin sword…'_

________

As Tira's ringblade tore through another corpse-to-be, she leapt to the rooftops and cut a sniper in half before throwing it like a boomerang, shredding apart yet five _more_ bandits.

Having seen that, the remaining enemies turned and fled. With a smile like a shark, she started pursuing them as she asked, "What's the matter? Dontcha wanna play wit me?"

The tone of her voice almost had half the men stop in their tracks. One guy actually _did_ stop to ask what the game was, only for the Iron Thrush to sing as it ripped out his throat. Then, before anyone else could try to escape, Tira began to perform one of her most powerful jutsu:

"**Ninja Art: Demonic Tides!" **

A massive water dome spread out over the bandits, spinning like the Maelstrom it truly was. The various scum could only look on in horror as the hurricane-like waters descended towards them before it began to rip them apart like a giant meat grinder.

As it tore away their flesh, the blood mingled freely with the water, proving beyond all doubt that to the Angel of Death, souls were all the same.

_______

As Yakumo and Carnage continued killing the numerous men who had attacked the village under their protection, Yakumo suddenly yelled, "Hey Carnage, what's the name of the game?!"

Grinning as he understood what she was getting at, Carnage drew himself to his full height, seemingly turned into a monster from Hell, and shouted out, **"SLAUGHTER SPREE!!!!!"**

As he practically went into overdrive on the killing, everyone suddenly smelt ozone as, in a blinding flash, ten rogue genin were incinerated.

Levitating in the air, lightning flashing from his arms and legs, Keith yelled, "Enter… Electro!"

At that, Electro began his own slaughter spree via ball lightning, incinerating groups of the enemy units with each attack.

Between Electro's onslaught and Carnage's berserker rage, the remaining forces were destroyed in a matter of seconds.

As Keith lowered himself to the ground, bringing the ambient electricity into his body, he began stumbling. When Naruto (now reverted) caught him, the Human Dynamo said, "Whoa, that really took a lot out of me. Guess I'll have to start getting used to full-scale manipulation like that."

Shaking his head in an effort to get his bearings, Keith allowed Naruto and Yakumo to take him back to the Village.

___________

Three days later, as the group was walking through the Main Gate, the Gatekeeper Chunin asked, "Ah, Team Anko, you've returned. Who do you have with you?"

Tira and Onimaru introduced themselves, before the group continued on their way to report.

Anko said, "Our mission went as follows: a few days in, we were ambushed by Tira here, who appears to be my half-sister. We decided to allow her to join us on a trial basis. Then, at the site, we found that Aoi Rokusho was leading the bandits. Keith single-handedly killed him, while Naruto, Yakumo, and I fought the bandits out in the open. Tira and Onimaru disposed of the few that made it to the village. I recommend that Tira join us with minimal security clearance for a couple of months, and Onimaru has requested to join the civilian militia."

With a big puff of smoke, Hiruzen sighed before saying, "I will take all of this into consideration. In the meantime, Team Anko, here's your payment."

Faster than the eye could see, Keith grabbed it, started counting, and upon finding exactly as much as they were supposed to get, equally divided between himself, Anko, Naruto, Yakumo, and after a moment of thought, Onimaru and Tira.

Having been paid, the group left the tower.

_____________

Change II: Warp

Shortly after Team Psycho had left the building, Team 9—consisting of Rock Lee, Neji Hyuga, and Tenten Akayomi under the tutelage of Might Guy—entered to get their own mission. Since Team 9 had been active for a year longer than Team Psycho (officially Team 6 or Team Anko), they were much more accustomed to going on C-rank missions.

Sighing in advance to deal with Guy's obsession with the Power of Youth, the Hokage started looking for mission scrolls above D-rank. However, it seemed that there were no remaining C-rank missions—there was, however, a low B-rank mission available.

Looking spandex-clad Jonin in the eyes, he asked, "Guy, do you think that your students are ready for a B-rank mission, or should I have Team 10 go with you?"

Wanting his pupils to get the experience this would entail, but at the same time he didn't want to put them in too great of a danger.

However, his faith in his students compromised with his concern for their safety, and he said, "I believe that we would be able to complete the mission ourselves, but for safety's sake I think we should make this a joint mission with Team 10, if that's your recommendation."

Hiding his joy that Guy was supressing his enthusiasm at the moment, Sarutobi brought in his son's team as well.

Asking them if they agreed, (and they did), Sarutobi started briefing the eight shinobi on the mission parameters.

"I have recently received intelligence reports about an outpost of bandits and rogue ninja—genin to chunin level—near the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Waves."

Asuma asked, "But didn't Team 7 go on a mission there just recently?"

"Yes. Let me tell you about the current situation there. While Gato was controlling Wave, the average standard of living was very poor, although bandit and missing-nin attacks were kept under control. When Team 7 put Gato six feet under, the bandits and other various threats began growing more bold. Today, it's rare _not_ to be attacked. However, most of the people there are still grateful to us for having helped them before. Now, they have requested our help once more. If we aid them, then they have promised to trade with the Land of Fire _exclusively_. Meaning that our business opportunities would skyrocket. Your mission, therefore, is two-fold: for one thing, you will give whatever aid you can to the people of Wave. This mainly involves reconstruction work and similar tasks to help them get back on their feet. But the primary purpose—at least at the beginning—will require all of you to perform at the level of Chunin and special Jonin."

Guy asked, "Lord Hokage, what is the main purpose of this youthful mission?!"

Sighing, he said, "If you knew, Guy, I don't think you'd call it 'youthful.' The main mission here is…."

Closing his eyes for a moment before observing the ninja in front of him, he finished: "Seek and destroy."

______

As the teams set out for the Land of Waves, Shikamaru asked Ino why she was being so quiet. "Not that I'm complaining or anything, but it's not normal for you."

"Well Shikamaru, I've just been thinking about a lot of things. I've been thinking about the mission, my life in general, and so many other things."

The lazy genius would've inquired further, but found doing so much too troublesome.

But if he had asked, then she eventually would have asked him out.

___________

The group had recently arrived in Wave, and Team 10 was barely holding on to their sanity. Lee wasn't _too_ bad about the 'youth' anymore, but Guy was practically worse to make up for it. After a couple of days, Ino finally lost it and yelled at Guy to "get over your goddamned mid-life crisis!"

That, strangely enough, shut him up for a fair while.

Which left Asuma torn between reprimanding Ino for her language and blessing her for silencing Guy. In the end, he compromised by doing neither.

After setting up camp and a brief discussion, they decided that they would patrol the region in six-hour shifts. Team Guy volunteering to go first, they started to scout one area at a time.

For three days, things were relatively uneventful. Team 10 had located and destroyed a number of bandit hideouts, and so had Team 9. The more experienced Team Guy was secretly amazed at the skill shown by the rookies, so they were quite surprised when Ino stumbled into their base of operations carrying a near-dead Shikamaru, her clothes in tatters and her body very badly bruised as she mumbled, "They got him… the bastards got Choji…"

Then she lost consciousness.

It turns out that a group of rogue genin from Hidden Rain had ambushed Team 10 while they were patrolling—and since Asuma had left to destroy another target area, they hadn't stood much of a chance. Ino remained unconscious for two days.

Quickly preparing to mount a rescue operation, Guy and Lee went to rescue Choji while Neji and Tenten were told to guard Shikamaru and Ino.

They were also under orders to inform Asuma of what had happened as soon as he returned.

___________

Guy and Lee were fighting off a large mass of chunin with their Taijutsu, when Lee decided to press his advantage. Biting his thumb and spreading some blood on a seal, he summoned his Goblin Glider.

Jumping onto it as his armor's helmet system activated, he flew into the air while throwing a number of Pumpkin Bombs.

Knowing that intimidation was half the battle, he also began a shrill laugh that, combined with his appearance and his weapons, made his and Guy's enemies swear they were dealing with a monster from Land of Brimstone (**I assume you know which Land of Brimstone I'm talking about…**).

_____

(Meanwhile, with Shikamaru…)

Shikamaru found himself in a sea of darkness, drifting on the tides of shadow.

No matter which way he looked, he couldn't see anything—it was as though he were blind.

"Am I…. Dead?" his voice rang out over the endless expanse, echoing off of nothing and yet everything.

And then, he 'heard' a voice without a sound, 'saw' a form without a shape. It asked him a question, but it was more like reading the words written on paper than hearing them spoken aloud.

"'_**Do you wish to be dead?'"**_

Somehow able to understand that that he was dealing with something he knew nothing about, Shikamaru said, "No. As troublesome as it is, I want to live."

The shapeless form—or perhaps a formless shape?—seemed to smile, or something like it, as if overcome by an old memory.

"'_**Then live as my incarnation on Earth, Shikamaru Nara. I am Khonshu, and if you would live, then you are my avatar. Look upon your visage reflected in the sea of Time, and return to the place you wish to be.'"**_

The genin shouted, "But I can't see anything!"

Laughing, Khonshu told him, _**"'But child, you have yet to open your eyes…"**_

And in the real world, Shikamaru's eyes flashed open as his body was engulfed in white light.

___________

(With Guy and Lee…)

The green-clad shinobi had finished defeating the guards at the enemy outpost and about to break in and rescue Choji when he appeared directly in front of them.

Gone for three days, it was clear that the people who captured him had apparently done something to his body.

His shirt had been torn to shreds as his muscle mass had increased over tenfold, and the rest of his clothes weren't in much better shape.

He now stood a full foot taller than anyone else his age, had eight-pack abs, and muscles that looked like they could crush bone with sickening ease just by flexing them normally.

His voice was roughly the same, if a little bit deeper. "What took you so long? I've had the guys inside busted up for a while now."

His face also looked more adult-like, and Choji's body didn't have any type of wounds _at all_.

Worried for his comrade and friend, Lee asked, "Choji, what on Earth happened to you? You look like a freakin' bodybuilder!"

Shrugging, Choji just said, "Well, the guys who caught me put in a giant tube and used some weird medical jutsu on me with seals. One minute I'm in pain and unconscious, and the next thing I know, I'm buffer than Hulk Hogan and kickin' ass like Chuck Norris."

______

Meanwhile, the group at Base was also under attack. A rogue chunin from Waterfall had summoned a demonic lizard, which Neji was doing his best to fight. Tenten was grappling with the chunin himself, while Ino was still recovering.

It seemed as though the Leaf ninja were doomed, but as Shikamaru's body became engulfed in white light, the tide began to change.

Temporarily blinded, the lizard reared up in pain.

Seizing his chance, Neji cried out, "You're in my range of divination! **Eight Trigrams, Sixty-Four Palms!**"

Repeatedly stabbing the massive beast with the equivalent of chakra-formed knives in the heart, Neji's final strokes were powerful enough that they actually pierced the monster's skin and entered the giant, beating heart. Quickly pulling out his hands, Neji saw that they were now glowing with a pink aura around them.

Deciding to worry about that later, though, he turned and saw Shikamaru dressed in a white robe and hood wielding a bo staff with which he was beating the shit out of the assailant.

Then, launching him into the air, Shikamaru gathered white energy around his hand before releasing it in a pair of crescent-shaped blasts that tore apart the victim.

Now turning around to face his friends, Shikamaru lowered his hood just as Asuma, Choji, Guy, and Lee returned.

With everyone now looking at everyone else, Tenten broke the rather awkward silence.

"So… who wants to explain first?"

Choji sighed and told them his story, then Asuma explained his delay of return due to combat. Ino and Tenten recounted the attack, and Neji told them about his battle with the demon lizard. Everyone then looked to Shikamaru.

Sighing heavily, he said, "I'm only going to say all of this once, so pay attention, as it's really troublesome. Apparently, I died and have been resurrected as the earthly avatar of a foreign moon god with powers I don't know much about yet, and in exchange for continued life here I am to carry out his will… or something to that effect."

Ino's jaw had dropped for two reasons: one, both of her friends had changed significantly (Choji was built like a tank—and it seemed that all of his fat had turned into muscle—Shikamaru was an avatar of a moon god) and yet they still seemed relatively normal personality-wise.

Two, someone she knew had died and been brought back to life.

"So Shikamaru, should we give you some kind of title or something, considering your apparent divine role now?"

Shrugging, he said, "Nah. I'm still Shikamaru. And I'm also Moon Knight. But for the most part, I'm just Shikamaru. So we'll stick with that, 'kay?"

Nodding, they then focused on Neji, whose hands had by now stopped glowing.

Until, of course, Neji tried to focus his chakra again. This time, his Byakugan activated, but his hands were glowing pink rather than blue like they normally did. When Lee saw this, he said, "Neji! You told us that that first happened when you plunged you hands into the heart of the summon, did you not? I read about something similar happening to a warrior many centuries ago—the power of the monster apparently fused into his body, allowing him to control his chi. It also gave him the power of the "Iron Fist". Sadly, though, I don't remember any more than that."

Looking at his hands, Neji asked himself, "Iron Fist, huh?"

One thing was absolutely certain: from then on, _nothing_ was certain.

______

**The title for the first part of the chapter comes from the Metallica song and album. **

**FYI: You guys had me emo for a week or so with the almost complete lack of response to the last chapter. In fact, I think Chap 3 had the most reviews (10)—and the previous chapter had the LEAST reviews (5)! WTF is up with that?! Did it really suck that much, or were you really that lazy? I actually care what you have to say. Let me spell it out for you in nice, big letters:**

**YOUR INPUT MATTERS, YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE SHITSTAINS!!!!**

**(*Exhales*) I feel so much better having gotten that off my chest. Also, the reason I merged Change II: Warp into this chapter was so that you guys would ave more than just a measly 2.5 pages to read. IN ADDITION, Shikamaru wasn't supposed to happen until the second Chunin Exam (Forest of Death). Oh and if anyone can guess who the final member of Team 7 is (I mean the Marvel character they represent), you will receive the MechaUltimaZero Award for Reader Excellence. Here's a hint: go back and reread the first couple of chapters! Dirty Reid, I bet you $20 you can get it if you decipher the clue "reply".**

**Translations:**

**Akayomi: I couldn't find a translation for "Bloody Moon", so I went with this. If a suitable translation is found within 48 hours of this posting, I'll change it. Otherwise, I won't.**

**New Poll: Should I turn Guy into the Naruto-verse equivalent of Captain America? Yes, it sounds weird, but I **_**think**_** I can make it work.**

**Original Jutsu:**

_**Ninja Art: Demonic Tides:**_** the user summons a massive amount of chakra and floods the area with it, much like the **_**Hidden Mist Jutsu**_**, but instead of saturating the water droplets with their chakra and letting it hand, he or she must instead circulate the water in a dome around the targeted area like a whirlpool. This technique bears great resemblance to both **_**Giant Vortex Jutsu**_** and **_**Water Prison Jutsu**_**. Once the water dome has been formed and begins rotating, the user must begin compressing it towards the ground, eventually grinding their opponents into oblivion. The blood from those killed in the jutsu is used to help keep it going, and helps to increase the fluid pressure and rotation speed. Upper A-rank, borderline S-rank.**


End file.
